Untagged Stamps - What Happens To Them..?

Hi guys..Was wondering if anyone knows what happens to mail that goes through the post office with NO tagging (tagging error) on it that was mailed by an average person..

1 - Does the machine kick these envelopes out to a special pile...??
2 - Is their a person in the post office that verifies if this stamp is real..??
3 - Do they just send it back to the sender..??

Hi Wert! Are you up nights thinking of these things? Anyway, I can give you an answer for one little area of stamps.
I was wondering, several months ago, why I was getting all these uncanceled stamps on my incoming mail and decided to do a test.
I collect Transportation Coils, and a whole range of those are not tagged. I have a permit to use precanceled stamps.
When I use precanceled stamps, I am supposed to hand these letters to the clerk who is then supposed to cancel them.
At my post office they refuse to cancel them, even if shown the rules in the Domestic Mail Manual.
The letters go to wherever they are canceled, and come out of that place, yes, you guessed it, uncanceled! There is no tagging to tell the canceller that there is a stamp!
I have numerous examples of these ( first class ) letters that come through this way!

Peter

I worked at the po 11 yrs,the mail goes on a belt, the mail handlers put in trays, the trays go to the machines,the machines are monotored by one or two mail clerks, the pieces get kicked out of the machine and sent to manual mail (throwing the mail by hand,by mail clerks, is called manual mail at the po) if the Manual mail clerk doesn't cancel it then the mail carrier,(the carrier is your mailman/woman/person) might catch it but to tell the truth no one worrys about cancelling manual mail, it is 1st class mail and it is supposed to be out of the building in 24 hours as per postal regulations, the postal inspectors enforce that, if not dispatched in 24hrs someone (the supervisor of the manual letters section or floor supervisor-or plant supervisor-ya it rolls down hill)gets written up ,so the theme is throw the mail like the alien on men in black the movie, as fast as you can, if they get behind there is overtime until it all gets thrown and trayed and dispatch. The machines have small ink blocks attached along the machine in 3 bars to manual cancel mail(same as at the manual mail cases) if there is small amounts the machine clerk might cancel letters by hand but large amounts go to manual mail section with any other unmachinable mail.

The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote on the Canada's Computer Vended Stamps for the Corgi Times. Mr. Harris refers to Mr. Robin Harris, the Editor of Unitrade. Mr. Harris explained the reason for applying tagging to Canadian postage stamps.

According to Canada Post's April-June 2013 "DETAILS", the stamp image is pre-printed with secure fluorescent ink on label stock with the kiosk printing a two dimensional barcode and postage value that can be read by Canada Post's equipment. It is tagged across the top of the stamp and down 2/3rds of the left and right sides.

Mr. Harris' research concerning tagging and cancellation is as follows:

"Canada's stamps have tagging to 'face' the envelope in the MLOCR (multi-line optical character reader) machines.

'Facing' an envelope is the first step in the mechanized process of mail distribution. It orients the envelope such that the front is facing forward and the stamp is in the upper right corner. This allows the MLOCR to read the postal code and apply the necessary bar coding on the back of the envelope.

The envelope then goes to the cancelling machine where a scanner visualizes the stamp and compares the stamp to an image database of [undefined] "current" Canadian postage stamps.

The kiosk and Picture Postage(tm) stamps have not been included in the image database ... so, they do not get cancelled (similar to much older Canadian stamps), even if the stamp is tagged.

Many receivers of covers with these stamps attached have noticed the lack of cancels.

So BlackJag...What you are saying (in a readers digest version), is the envelope will still get to its destination...correct..??

Yes, it will get there, but uncancelled by machine as it isn't a recognized image. However, like all uncanceleld stamps going through the automated system, a Postal employee might hand cancel it.

I know that here in the US, for instance, I cancel my own postage by permit and then my letter will be sent to Portland and get run through the machine. My PM said that it doesn't matter anymore if its precancel, hand cancel or regular mail, it all goes in the same basket and goes to the main office in portland. Entirely automated. Some get canceled again and some dont.
They handle as little by hand as possible.

that is where I last worked at the main po portland or- yes everything on one belt sorted into trays. if it is machinable that is it goes to the sorting machines, if it is bent, torn ect sent to manual mail and items tossed by the machine or bent jammed up crushed torn etc also sent to manual- heck if it is a slow day in manual mail trays are not sent to the machine but to manual especially thick letters.

Lately I have noticed that probably 40-50% of the mail arrives uncancelled.

This is great - I figure whenever I pay for shipping for stamps I have about a 50% chance of getting most of it refunded in the form of uncancelled postage