Secret Postage Stamp Message System

[BuddyG]

I received a letter the other day on which
the postage stamp was upside-down.
Someone mentioned to me that an upside-down
stamp is sometimes deliberately placed that
way to convey a message.
Unfortunately, no one knew much more.

So, is there is a secret stamp position
system? If so, what is it?
What does each position mean?
(Normal, upside-down, to the left,
to the right)...

[metroshane]

in a laverne and shirley episode, shirley mails a letter (to fabian i think) with an upside down stamp.. she claimed it meant 'I love you'.

But i've sent stamp upside down on accident before.

------------------
We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful--Oscar Wilde

[UncleBeer]

Why don't you just ask the person who sent you that letter? Seems like a simple solution to me.

------------------
Dopeler effect:
The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

[SaxFace]

My more unpatriotic friends deliberately place the US flag stamp upside down as a statement of their disapproval of US government/policy/citizens, etc. Sort of like putting a cross upside down, I suppose.

[Yarster]

I know that hanging a US flag upside down is supposed to be a subtle way to tell people something is wrong. They would do it all the time in war movies to alert troops not to come back to the base because it had been overtaken by the enemy and they were hiding in ambush.

My WAG is: a stamp upside might mean something to the effect of 'everything in this letter (or whatever) is bullshit and you should disregard it' Or, everything in this letter is the exact opposite of what it says.

Incidentally, when I was a younger lad, since the stamp cancellation process is automated, we'd put the stamp just to the right or left of the 'send to' address in roughly the middle of the envelope which casued the cancellation machine to miss it and you could reuse the stamp. Also, if you think ahead, and are sending a big package requiring loads of stamps, cover them with white glue (elmer's), and when it dries, it forms a clear coating that allows the cancellation ink to be wiped right off.

I know, you have to be pretty desperate and cheap to be re-using stamps, but we were poor college students at the time.

[Rhythmdvl]

I kinda hate to admit I have something in common with L&S, but the upside-down stamp thing has been in my family for a coupla generations at least. My grandfather on my Ma's side would send back letters to the family during WWII with the stamp upside-down for warm sentiments. Since at least then (though I don't know if that is how it started, or just a family UL) any personal letters, cards, etc. that go out have the stamp upside-down. Though, I must admit doing that once or twice with bills. My final car payment, for instance.

>clicking the SUBMIT button with an upside-down mouse<



------------------
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…

[Jebediah]

My pop said sometime in the last couple of years that he got a letter, and the stamp didn't appear to be canceled. So he pealed it of and tried to re-use. He got his letter back in the mail with a note saying "Please do not re-use stamps". So maybe they have some new high tech equipment at work? An invisible glowing dye? I don't know if it will penetrate elmers glue though.

[metroshane]

This may be dumb, and ya'll may have discussed before, but why don't people just simple reverse the to and fro address, don't put a stamp on it, and let the post office return to sender (which is reall the 'to' person) insufficient postage?

------------------
We live in an age that reads to much to be wise, and thinks too much to be beautiful--Oscar Wilde

[voltaire]

This may be dumb, and ya'll may have discussed before, but why don't people just
simple reverse the to and fro address, don't put a stamp on it, and let the post office
return to sender (which is reall the 'to' person) insufficient postage?


I've done that before, but it only works on a local basis. If your Post Office in Florida gets an unstamped letter with a return address in Alaska and a local destination address, they may get suspicious and just send it back to the local address. They've gotta know that the chances are slim for a letter to make it from Alaska to Florida with no stamp.

[cher3]

Well, here's one answer I found:
http://www.themysterybox.com/Features/sweetie/sweetie.html

I don't think the PO would let you use most of them these days, though. It would mess up their cancelling machines.

[MrKnowItAll]

I read once where a good way to send secret messages (like a piece of microfilm, for instance) would be to place it underneath the stamp. A upside-down stamp indicated there was something there.

So how 'bout it, BuddyG. Are you in the so-called "intelligence" community?

[Satan]

I would, occasionally, put stamps upside-down just to be different.

I ALWAYS sent my microfilm via FedEx! :D

------------------
Yer pal,
Satan

[Akatsukami]

Well, whatever message might have been intended to be conveyed by the upside-down stamp wasn't. So, my WAG would be that it's a totally ineffective system, if it exists in fact.

------------------
"Kings die, and leave their crowns to their sons. Shmuel HaKatan took all the treasures in the world, and went away."

[SoulFrost]

Well...I've always heard that the upside down stamp means "I love you". So I bebopped my way through high-school, showing all the girls how with-it I was--"oh, that's so sweet!" they'd exclaim.

Ok...then I joined the Navy and got myself stationed in Japan. Eventually, I met a girl . On the first letter I sent her, I thought I'd be cool and put the stamp upside down.

A couple of days later, she showed up at my apartment, ranting and fuming and demanding "how could you do this". It seems that in Japanese tradition (at least, in her neighborhood), it means "I hate you".

Yeah, that was fun.

-David

[BuddyG]

MrKnowItAll,

"So how 'bout it, BuddyG. Are you in the
so-called "intelligence" community?"

I know that 2+2=4 and George Washington was the first President of the United States!!
"Lets take this rabbit for a ride...
He KNOWS too much"


cher3,
Thanks for the link. That's the info I needed.

Cheers, BuddyG

[Manda JO]

If the idea of alternate postal systems is particularly facinating to any of you, I'd suggest reading Pynchon's _The Crying of Lot 49_ It's extremly post modern, if you like that sort of thing, and a fun read.

That was covered in a book called Bigger Secrets by William Poundstone. Yes,it does work,but I was too scared to try it ;)

[Ukulele Ike]

There's a fairly well-known Urban Legend (well known enough to get into the Paradox Press "graphic novel" treatment, THE BIG BOOK OF U.L. [recommended!!!], anyway) in which a POW makes some odd statement about the stamp in his "They're treating me very well in this prioson camp" letter to Mom.

When curious Mom peels off the stamp, she finds scrawled underneath "THEY'VE CUT OFF MY HANDS!" or some other nasty trick his captors have subjected him to, but which would not have made it past the camp censors.

I usually put the US flag stamps on upside down, out of nostalgia for my Yippie days. My current stamps have little raspberries and strawberries on them, though, and I don't really know what THAT would signify. A fondness for jam?

------------------
Uke

[HelloKitty]

This may be dumb, and ya'll may have discussed before, but why don't people just simple reverse
the to and fro address, don't put a stamp on it, and let the post office return to sender (which is reall
the 'to' person) insufficient postage?

I have tried that before, too and it worked for awhile. It was suggested in one of the "Big Secrets" books! But after a couple weeks of sending free letters, I finally got a notice back from the PO saying if I kept it up I could be prosecuted. How did they figure me out?? Could it be they are smarter than we give them credit for?

[mr john]

The letter was for a BuddyG in Australia.
I used to use the return address trick but you can't over do it as kitty found out. Usually it worked, but a few times the PO, now the PS, didn't 'return to sender' but delivered it postage due, a slip in the college PO box, not so bad unless I was visiting some one I hadn't told about it. They'd pick up their mail and i would owe them for my own letter. And a few times with home delivery the mail man came to the door, whadda ya say? 'I don't want it?'Sometimes a judicious smear of the 'to' address prevented that. I thot V mail didn't need a stamp, course, Rhytm, you didn't say it WAS V mail.
this > . < is not here do not look at or under it, don't waste your time , you won't see anything even with a microscope. IT AIN"T THERE.

------------------

"Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."-Marx

[Alphagene]

My more unpatriotic friends deliberately place the US flag stamp upside down as a statement of their disapproval of US government/policy/citizens, etc.

Keep in mind that Sax's friends are all godless commies who smoke thin black cigarettes. They're also diseased and highly infectious as the result of sharing used saxophone reeds.

Good people, though.

------------------
Back off, man. I'm a scientist.

[Markxxx]

In Chicago they can't even deliver the mail when you put the stamps on right.

But anyway I vote for Laverne & Shirley. I love you is the reason I heard.

[TerryTerrific]

I have tried that before, too and it worked for awhile. It was suggested in one of the "Big Secrets" books! But after a couple weeks of sending free letters, I finally got a notice back from the PO saying if I kept it up I could be prosecuted. How did they figure me out?? Could it be they are smarter than we give them credit for?

+++++

At USPS GMF (General Mail Facilities) the high speed sorting / canceling machinery "looks" for postage in the upper right hand corner.

It is actually looking for the phosphoresent coating applied to all postage stamps.

If after a certain number of tries, that particular envelope is diverted for human handling.

It is at this step that a human determines the fate of the letter.

That is how the USPS knew (became aware) of one's defrauding the postal service by switching "to:" and "from;" and omitting proper postage.


------------------

Terence in Marietta, GA

Be someone's hero

[whitetho]

Years ago, I read an anecdote about a journalist in the Soviet Union who got a stern lecture at the post office when he tried to mail a letter with unside-down stamp featuring one of the country's fearless letters. (The journalist claimed it was an accident).

I just bought some stamps which feature tropical fish. What kind of message would it send to mail a letter with a stamp that has three fish floating upside-down in an aquarium?

[whitetho]

Umm, "fearless leaders". Carry on...

[Ukulele Ike]

Whiteho, it took you THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES to proofread your post?

------------------
Uke

[BugZap]

whitetho said...(snipped)
I just bought some stamps which feature tropical fish. What kind of message would it send to mail a letter with a stamp that has three fish floating upside-down in an aquarium?
**************

Whatever message you want. As long as you paid the .33 for the transmission fee, no prob.

In the fish case,,,
Might even attract attention in a better way if you were fund raising for the local community aquarium. The upside down fish stamp would call attention to the letter, and on the inside,,,, hey! we're going belly up here without a little help from you! Send fish food! , or dollars to purchase same,,some! Thanks!

Stamps on those letters, would be passed thru, sometimes uncancelled, with no problem.
Reuse the uncancelled ones,, problem.
How do they spot them?
Anyone can tell a virgin dollar bill from a used one. Same principle, that simple.
You wanna fake? (In the verb sense.)
Your stuff better be as good as ours.
----------------

terence wrote:

At USPS GMF (General Mail Facilities) the high speed sorting / canceling machinery "looks" for postage in the upper right hand corner.

It is actually looking for the phosphoresent coating applied to all postage stamps.
----------
Not quite right. The older cancelling machines looked for 4 corners. There are 8 possibles on a flat envelope, it looked for the most likely position first,, and in this case, that's the upper right. It made a quick machine decision,, is it there, or is it not? Yes'es go one direction, no's go another.
So, a sensor that reads 'either, or'. Then one to read the front of the envelope, one, the back. Voila! The four most possible locations, identified and hit with the cancel stamp,,, the rest go to a skip bin.

That's their first human contact. No stamps? Wrong corner? Too thick? Too thin?
All rejects,, that is, machine rejects, nothing personal.

The phosphorescent coating? Hmmm,,, I'm pretty sure that the modern stuff uses magnetic trace ink, like printed checks do, but I'm not gonna rule it out.
However, now, they as much as possible throw everything thru an optical scanner first.
They don't care so much at this stage if it's got the correct postage, or a scannable address, correctly formatted.
That's number one. A lot of papers gotta move, and fast.
They'll make sure they collect the correct amount later.

-----------------
If after a certain number of tries, that particular envelope is diverted for human handling.

It is at this step that a human determines the fate of the letter.
----------------------

More or less correct, but the first number is expected to be zero.
The humans don't really determine the fate, they just follow the regulations for the correct transmission, and delivery, to you.
No problem. You paid in advance when you purchased the postage.
But you know, fate is funny. As long as you don't try to cheat too much, or too often, you might get cut some slack.

Make it amusing though,, I've already seen all the others, and it's my job to collect.
I'll laugh, but you'll still have to pay anyway. (If it's a really good example, it'll get passed around the office to the amusement of manny. There's no higher postal honor than that!) {seriously, and make sure to send some of those really cool spring break ones; there's nothing like sneering at your friends,, 'wish you were here', or,, 'eat your hearts out! suckers!'
Only 20 cents to mail, a bargain.}

------------------
That is how the USPS knew (became aware) of one's defrauding the postal service by switching "to:" and "from;" and omitting proper postage.
------------------

Well, actually,,
You've seen (my comments) above.

At the lowly worker level,, pretty easy to spot an envelope with no postage, don't you think? Everything else in the freakin' place has a stamp on it! Why not this?
And how cute, it has 'returned for postage' inked in the corner.
Hey look! It's wierd bobs return address. Where's he sending it to?
Whadda? No stamp?

Wierd bob was a pretty cool dude, so ya' know what I did? I put a stamp on it for him, and told him later i'd covered his ass.
But don't do it again? OK?

Ha! And they thought we couldn't see thru that scheme!


(BZ is of course joking/partially telling the truth, and or, speculating.
That's my disclaimer, and I'm stucking too it.)

[AWB]

I heard that it's illegal in Great Britain to place a stamp upside-down on an envelope if the Queen is depicted on it?

British SDMBers: is this true?