Had a letter from a friend delivered today. It's with a purple barcoded first class stamp, postmarked Home Counties North 09.03.2023.
On it is a yellow "Fee to Pay" sticker with the mention "Invalid Stamp". Yet I have been delivered it anyway (I didn't get a grey card?).
Not complaining, but just curious as thought the barcoded stamps were supposed to be less counterfeitable.
My friend is annoyed as she said she bought them in a book at her local supermarket.
How would Revenue Protection decide that a stamp is counterfeit, and does my friend have any recourse?
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Letter received with yellow Fee to Pay Sticker "Invalid Stamp"
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simmo11
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TrueBlueTerrier
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Re: Letter received with yellow Fee to Pay Sticker "Invalid Stamp"
Recourse - with the Post Office no.
The bar code is not impossible to counterfeit and I guess in this case they copied a valid one that had already been used or the reverse a counterfeit one was copied and got through cancelling the stamp the sender used.
The only way to avoid this is to only buy stamps from Post Offices and large retailers, but definitely don't buy any that are cheaper than the official ones. Shops can sell stamps but their licence conditions mean they CAN NOT sell them cheaper than the face price.
The bar code is not impossible to counterfeit and I guess in this case they copied a valid one that had already been used or the reverse a counterfeit one was copied and got through cancelling the stamp the sender used.
The only way to avoid this is to only buy stamps from Post Offices and large retailers, but definitely don't buy any that are cheaper than the official ones. Shops can sell stamps but their licence conditions mean they CAN NOT sell them cheaper than the face price.
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davthepunk
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Re: Letter received with yellow Fee to Pay Sticker "Invalid Stamp"
I just looked on eBay. I am totally unsurprised that there are already people selling sheets of the new bardcoded 1st class stamps for what amounts to 35p per stamp and listed as "for collectable purposes only". Seems legit.TrueBlueTerrier wrote: ↑17 Mar 2023, 08:34Recourse - with the Post Office no.
The bar code is not impossible to counterfeit and I guess in this case they copied a valid one that had already been used or the reverse a counterfeit one was copied and got through cancelling the stamp the sender used.
The only way to avoid this is to only buy stamps from Post Offices and large retailers, but definitely don't buy any that are cheaper than the official ones. Shops can sell stamps but their licence conditions mean they CAN NOT sell them cheaper than the face price.
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Lounge Lizard
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Re: Letter received with yellow Fee to Pay Sticker "Invalid Stamp"
I'm not sure but think the barcode is glossy on genuine stamps but is likely to be matt on forgeries.
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simmo11
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Re: Letter received with yellow Fee to Pay Sticker "Invalid Stamp"
Reviving this thread, but just seen this on Twitter.
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