# What are these vertical marks on this envelope?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-vertical-marks-on-this-envelope/355292>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 3, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-vertical-marks-on-this-envelope/355292 "2006-05-03T20:51:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-vertical-marks-on-this-envelope/355292/1 "2006-05-03T20:51:11Z")

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I mailed in my car insurance payment today, and used two 37-cent stamps. I used the envelope which came with the insurance bill, which had a plastic window in it for the return address.

The envelope also had a set of black vertical lines on the top edge, about 2.5 inches away from the upper-right corner. Five of them, covering a one-inch square. The lines were spaced somewhat like this:

```auto

|| | ||

```

Because the stamps I used were rather oversized, they obscured these lines. If I had used normal-sized stamps, the lines would have been visible.

I assume these things serve some purpose - what is it? Should I be concerned that State Farm will never receive my payment because I’ve interfered with some system of theirs, or the post office?

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**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-vertical-marks-on-this-envelope/355292/2 "2006-05-03T20:56:27Z")

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> [@Absolute](#):
>
> I assume these things serve some purpose - what is it? Should I be concerned that State Farm will never receive my payment because I’ve interfered with some system of theirs, or the post office?

They are called [Facing Identification Marks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facing_Identification_Mark). Don’t worry, it won’t slow your envelope down by much.

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**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-vertical-marks-on-this-envelope/355292/3 "2006-05-04T05:20:51Z")

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Ah, that makes sense. Thanks a lot.