How is the value of stamps on an envelope assessed?

[mediamonkey]

I know that the standard 1st and 2nd class stamps have phosphor bands that allow machinery to identify them. But what if I stick a 2nd class stamp on and then decide I want to send it first class instead and attach a 10p stamp to make up the price? Can the machines cope with that? Or if I use two ordinary 1st class stamps (46p) to pay for a 2nd class Large Letter (92p). Or (as I had to do a couple of days ago) use an assortment of half a dozen stamps to make up a packet rate?

Are the stamps added up "by hand" or is there some automated process? And if I use 2nd class stamps to make up a 1st class rate, is there a danger that it will be automatically sorted as 2nd class?

Vaguely related question - why do hardly any stamps get postmarked these days? I'd estimate that of the stamped mail I receive about 60% has no postmark - and that figure is more like 90% if it's a jiffy bag or larger envelope. If RM is trying to save money perhaps it should concentrate on preventing reuse of stamps!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I know that the standard 1st and 2nd class stamps have phosphor bands that allow machinery to identify them. But what if I stick a 2nd class stamp on and then decide I want to send it first class instead and attach a 10p stamp to make up the price? Can the machines cope with that? Or if I use two ordinary 1st class stamps (46p) to pay for a 2nd class Large Letter (92p). Or (as I had to do a couple of days ago) use an assortment of half a dozen stamps to make up a packet rate?

Yes they'll cope, if not they are usually rejected and checked by the "revenue protection team" at the various mail centres.

Are the stamps added up "by hand" or is there some automated process? And if I use 2nd class stamps to make up a 1st class rate, is there a danger that it will be automatically sorted as 2nd class?

Bit of both, the machines will automatically check that the value of the stamps and reject any that are flagged by the software. They then get passed on to the "revenue protection" team who will double check. There is also a reliance on the Post Office staff getting the charges right and experienced posties on the ground recognising when too little is paid.

Vaguely related question - why do hardly any stamps get postmarked these days? I'd estimate that of the stamped mail I receive about 60% has no postmark - and that figure is more like 90% if it's a jiffy bag or larger envelope. If RM is trying to save money perhaps it should concentrate on preventing reuse of stamps!

This is a fairly common question among posties and I have heard of people being moved off the "cancelling" table to other areas because they are struggling. Apparently efficiency no longer includes cancelling stamps and stopping their re-use, I think they are naively relying on the fact that reuseing a stamp is against the law.

[mediamonkey]

Bit of both, the machines will automatically check that the value of the stamps and reject any that are flagged by the software. They then get passed on to the "revenue protection" team who will double check. There is also a reliance on the Post Office staff getting the charges right and experienced posties on the ground recognising when too little is paid.

Thanks for the reply. I send out a few CDs (not valuable) each week and I don't bother going to the PO to send them. 90% of the time they are about 130g and well within Large Letter size so I just keep a stock of stamps and post them in a pillarbox with £1.09 of postage on. As RM doesn't produce a single stamp for the <250g LL rate I end up using quite a mixture, often including 2nd class, together with old (and unused of course!) stamps from the 1980s and even 1970s to make up the pennies.

So I was just curious how the value and correct class is worked out, especially as some of those old 7p make-up rate Xmas stamps were probably "first class" when they were issued in the 1970s! I tend to write "1.09" in a circle next to the stamps to help out but don't know if this is wise or necessary...

[Lounge Lizard]

Nothing has changd since First Class and Second Class rates were introduced in the late 1960s in that automated sorting machines segregate a single phosphor bar, which can only be a single Second Class stamp, from everything else which, unless segregated manually, goes as First Class. So rather than buying Second Class stamps at 36p it makes sense to use instead say a 3 x 10p plus 3 x 2p, or maybe 20p + 10p + 5p + 1p.