The Last Postage Due Stamped Cover

What is the date of the last USPS use of a postage due stamp on a surviving cover?

* * * Moved by Moderator to Back of Book section, per suggestion * * *

I may be misunderstanding your question, but I have the 17c Postage Due stamp on an Artmaster FDC, I think it was June 1985.

The "Postal Bulletin" would suggest a last "within the regulations" date of October 2, 1986. Later dates would be quite desirable.

(The revsion note at the end refers to other changes not connected to postage due stamps.)

And no doubt outside the intent of the OP's question, here is a mis-use by a collector in 2022 which slipped through the cracks!

Do you know how was the stock of postage due on hand was handled? I heard that they were burned or shredded
at the local post offices. I know the Philatelic Sales Division still had them in stock until some time in 1987.

No. I do not have a copy of the Financial Handbook.

Interesting examples, thanks. Does anyone here have a postally-used cover with USPS-applied postage due stamps dating from 1986? I wonder how close we can get to Octover 2, 1986. My meager cover collection has no legit postage due examples after the 1970s.

This is the last one I found in my collection but I am sure there are more recent out there. But they seems to be rare.The rate explanation is as follows: Air mail letter 5-10 grams to USA. Surface fee 170 öre. Air mail fee 25 öre per 5 grams. total fee 220 öre. Shortpaid 50 öre. Due handstamp indicates deficiency 50 öre and foreign surface letter rate 170 öre. 26 cents have been charged in the USA which is 50/170 of foreign surface letter rate 20 c = 6 cents and handling fee 20 cents making a total of 26 cents.

May I suggest a title change for this thread? I suggest 'The last use of postage due stamps' or 'Final use of postage due stamps.'

Postage due covers are still being mailed and postage due is still being collected.

And maybe move this topic to 'US Back of Book' also.

Due to a working relationship with a Postmaster in a Massachusetts PO, I was able to obtain a full 100 sheet of the 1c postage due. I paid the $1 so the office account would be square. I think the following week all PD stock was sent to the central vault in Boston for destruction.

Anthony S. 'Tony' Wawrukiewicz, (1943-2023) did not have any post termination postage due stamps on cover in his award winning exhibit, "The Ways U.S. Postage Due Stamps Were Used, 1876-1986" of which I show the last to pages:

of what has been shown so far, June 25, 1980 is the latest use of the stamps for collecting postage due on a mailed cover

For those who want to experience the entire Postage Due Exhibit prepared by Tony Wawrukiewicz, it is hosted on Stamps Smarter in our Exhibits section, a direct link is here...

https://stampsmarter.org/learning/a..._TonyPD.html

MikeL

seems odd to me to move this topic from Covers to Back of the Book when the most likely people to address the subject of latest cover are, of course, cover collectors

To complete a bit of the story, the due stamps were withdrawn from philatelic sales in two steps.
The first appearing in the Jan-Feb 1987 Philatelic Catalog shown here announcing those with the blue item numbers were to be withdrawn from sale February 28, 1987.

The "packet" of singles was available for another year and withdrawn from sale February 29, 1988.