Is This A Legitimate Usage?

I received a package of glassine envelopes from an active ebay seller the other day. It was franked with scrap postage at the Priority Mail Envelope rate. The biggest part of that postage was a $5 official mail stamp(O133).

Is this a legitimate usage? I did not think that you could use official mail stamps on this type of commercial mailing.

Bob

I do not think official stamps can be used for anything but official mail

Peter

Theoretically that is true, but in practical terms they have certainly been used on commercial covers at times. I remember having a large cover from a year or so back with about 50 low value official coils used on it; it came from an ebay purchase. It had other postage as well, but they were accepted.

The key is that it was on a package with other stamps. Most postal clerks have no idea of the rules. I have received packages with Special Delivery stamps and they are not valid as Special Delivery no longer exists. The head clerk at my Post Office had never heard of the Special Delivery service. I have also gotten Express Mail packages with postal counterfeits paying part of the postage. They slip by due to the number of stamps on the package.

as a retired postal clerk and even longer time stamp collector it was frustrating to see the way knowledge of stamps deteriorated over my time there. When I started in '83 there were still older clerks who had worked back in the early 50's when a penny had more value. Also as time went on and the proliferation of so many issues it was only philatelic clerks who cared about the stamps.

Using any official stamp is definately a violation. I believe it is a $300 fine and that goes way back. No one cares or knows any longer about the postage and as time went on management would not want to see time (clerk hours) waisted on short postage for small amounts. As far a special delivery stamps they too are not valid for normal postage.

Back in the 1950s when a letter could be mailed for 3 cents, collecting a penny was 1/3 the value of the postage. Today it is cheaper to just let the mail move. Ho Hum!