France - Status Of Stamps In Old Currency

Apparently France permits mailers there to use older stamps denominated in Francs for current mailing. I received an ebay purchase yesterday from a vendor there with attractive franking using stamps dating back to the 70's.

Anyone know how they can do this? The Franc is no longer a currency. How can they calculate whether franking in older stamps covers current postal charges?

I think the UK no longer allows usage of pre-decimal stamps to pay current charges. Just puzzled how they can manage this.

On the transition from national currencies stamps to euro ones, each country set its own policy.
I know that the're countries like France, Italy (I guess) and Belgium that allow the use of stamps with vàlues on francs or lire up to now. While others (Spain, Germany) withdrawn old currency stamps; so rendering them worthless.
In my view, the French approach is very clever.

As for the conversion from old currencies to euro, it's very easy for the citizens of each euro-zone countries. All of us know the value of an euro in old currency. A lot of old people still count their money on their former currencies. For exemple, in Spain is well known that !€ = 166 pesseta. As far as I know, 1 € = 8 French francs.
So, it's not a problema!

Hi: I have hundreds of recent covers with old French stamps and Italian.
1 euro = 6.556 francs and so on depending on the country.You just have to calculate the actual postal tarif and convert.Today in France it's
0.85 euros for an interior letter less than 20g.All these old stamps are
just good for mailing anyway.

I received a package from France that included, amongst the 1990s stamps on the packaging, a pre-1960 stamp. Very naughty!

Before the 1st of january 1960 it was the old francs.After this date and until the Euro it was called NF or new francs.
So; 100 old francs = 1 new franc; 1 old franc = 0.0015 euros !
You can imagine the number of stamps in old francs you would need to mail a letter today.

The mailing I alluded to had a low value airmail stamp from the 1950's.

I wonder how many other countries in the Euro area still permit this? Have not noticed anything similar from Germany, for one.

From the 1950's? Could you post a pic of this letter?
I don't know about Belgium , Spain or Germany.Will have too look through my old mail.In Germany the Mark was never demonetized.If you go too a bank in germany they can still change your Marks.In France the franc is
completly demonetized today.Only for collectors.paper in sum...

perf12

Here you are. Yt 1168/My 1145. From a dealer in Cherbourg. The likelihood of a young postal employee realising that this was not legitimate must be quite low.

Geoff

GeoffH: Nice selection on your cover.All the airmails except the Couzinet 70 are new francs.Couzinet 70 is 7.62 euros printed during the transition period (2000)thats why it's printed with the 50,00 francs & 7,62 euros together.All added up it comes to around 35,00 euros.Must of been a heavy package?

It was! A boxful of Yvert binders, pages etc from Philatélie 50. I had to wait weeks and weeks for them to send the order, and deeply regretted not ordering from Thematimbres!

Italy pre euro and euro



Germany pre euro and euro



GB not even cancelled...

In Spain, you can swap peseta notes and coins anytime at the Bank of Spain, but you cannot use peseta denominated stamps since 2002. In UK, you can use any decimal stamp for postage.

Just a thought: Can it be that the dealer that sent you that letter, used the older stamp as extra, above the shipment cost, so the post office didn't mind having it?
The reason - the dealer wanted to please you, and instead of a few extra stamps inside - added them on the envelope.