Quote:
Originally Posted by steve B
So buy some stamps, put them on the envelope, and ask for them to be cancelled and handed back to you. (My local won't do this, as it may now be against regulations)
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Your local post office is misinformed. Handback cancellation service is authorized in the Postal Operations Manual. Here's the relevant information:
231.4 Hand-Back and Mail-Back Service
Postmarks rather than other obliterations should be used to provide the following services whenever they are available:
a. Hand-Back Service
(1) When a customer personally presents an addressed or unaddressed envelope, postal card, or other item described in 231.63 to a postal clerk for cancellation with the current day's postmark, the post office must postmark the item and return it, or hand it back, to the customer.
(2) The envelope, card, or other item does not enter the mailstream. All such materials must bear uncanceled postage at the applicable First-Class rate.
Unfortunately, in my experience many window clerks are unaware of the rule, and there have been instances where skeptical clerks, and even supervisors, refused to co-operate even when presented with documentation. There was one time when I showed a supervisor a letter from USPS headquarters in Washington, DC saying that what I wanted to do was okay, and her response was that "it doesn't matter what Washington says." (I reported this to USPS HQ, with a copy to the local postmaster, and commented that if she was freely willing to say this to a member of the public, I could only wonder what she was telling her subordinates.)