"Not Official Stamps" "Postage Due 70c"

Whenever I mail the Vermont Philatelist to our members, I always send a test copy to myself. Last week (December 14, 2019) I mailed the envelope using imperf Loonie Toons stamps from the right section of the booklets they came from. The other stamps in the booklet had been used so I didn't destroy a booklet.

When I went to the post office today, the clerk told me that the postmaster wanted to see me and he handed me the test envelope with notations that the stamps were not "official" and I needed to pay 70c postage due. I told the postmaster they were official stamps and explained why they didn't have perforations. He knows that I know a lot more about the philatelic aspect of US stamps than he does. He told me not to worry about paying postage due and gave me the envelope.

This has happened to me before. A few years ago I used stamps from an imperforate press sheet to mail about 75 covers to my stamp club members from a post office in Vermont. My postmaster got a phone call from the Vermont postmaster warning him that I was using computer printed imperforate stamps to defraud the post office. Again, once I explained to my postmaster everything was fine.

Thats too funny. They were official enough to cancel them though! As I am trying to wrap my thoughts around this one I have a few questions. Why would there be .70c due? Is the correct postal rate $1.00 as you have applied to the cover? Wouldn't the postage due be at least equal to the underpaid amount?

Mike

Just amused at the concept of being called down to the postmaster's office. Flashbacks of visits to my elementary school principal!

So: magenta cancels. Was this handed across the PO counter?; looks to be about the required thickness. And did whatever clerk figure the weight correctly? The local Marker Monkey must have been on vacation, too, as here are supposedly non-stamps with postal cancels only still applied.

A great modern cover.

The postage rate in the US for 2 ounces is $ .70. I overpaid the rate because I wanted the stamps to be used. The magenta handcancels were added by my local post office when they handed the package back to me. It's cslled "revenue protection".

In the US, most post offices don't cancel their mail locally. All mail from this area goes to a center in Albany NY which is about 120 miles from here. Albany cancels mail from the Canadian border through an area well south of Albany. One local post office won't even cancel the local mail. It all goes to Albany and back sometimes taking a few days.

sounds like an efficient system

Hahaha @ the "marker monkey" comment. I'm more of a Pen Pirahna myself. Seen too many people re-using stamps, especially the string of 1c that non-profits use.

I like the arrows pointing out the stamps, in case you miss them.

Robert

Makes for a very nice modern cover. At least they didnt totally destroy the stamp faces... At first I wondered why you didnt remove them from the backing, and then I realized that these would/could then have been thought of as stamps that someone just cut away the perfs to look like the imperf stamps.

Love the cover and the story.

Now report to the detention hall!