International Mail Coupon?

What is this? How is/was it used?

https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Po...upons-(IRCs)

Google must not be available in Israel?



Peter

The International Reply Coupon (IRC) that is shown in the initial post was purchased (postmark to the left) but never redeemed (missing postmark to the right).

Some collectors have specialized in this field and some of the old coupons can be quite valuable.

Today there are countries that no longer sells IRC's (Denmark and Sweden comes to mind) and/or have an obscure procedure to redeem IRC's from other countries.

Sorry Peter, we have demonstrations here, and they block traffic routes, so I thought they might have blocked the internet traffic too.
Your link shows a very similar coupon to the one I posted, I couldn't identify the country because it was too small.
Nowadays that you can move money by Bit or PayPal, does the IRC still in use? Was it canceled officially? From Baltija's post, I assume it might exist de jure but not de facto.

@Rob Roy, IRC's are still a part of the UPU portfolio. I've seen them for sale in Germany and in most countries they are redeemable.
I have actually asked the postal service (PostNord) in Sweden how the IRC's can be redeemed, but have never received an answer. It's not mentioned on their website.

Baltija, I guess it's the "de jure but not de facto" situation, Like having to have a fax machine in official offices even if they are not in use anymore.

@Rob Roy, here is where I saw IRC's for sale in Germany (Internationaler Antwortschein): https://www.deutschepost.de/de/b/br...tschein.html

There are two general ways to get a reply from someone without them having to pay the postage. One is the reply postal card which comes with two sections connected. The first section pays the outgoing postage for the pair and allows for a message from the sender. The second card is considered pre-paid at the postal card rate in the country from which the person replies and has room for a message. The card(s) can be returned together (still attached) or the reply card severed and returned. The was no such "double envelope" with a prepaid reply, rather the IRC was developed to allow the sender to buy one and send it to the person who replies such that they do not need to pay for postage out of pocket, rather they can use the IRC in trade for the necessary stamp(s). Yes this is a repeat of what is said in the links, but now folks can read the information here without going to the links or in case the links die later.

I love this paragraph on the UPU's website




Good luck finding a post office in the Netherlands. We do not have them. I doubt any of the service points will accept them. You cannot buy them in the Netherlands.

Also, with many countries having zoned international postage, I cannot imagine those countries accepting these coupons unless they sell at the highest tariff. You can buy them online from Deutsche Post at € 2. Germany itself has a uniform international tariff (Netherlands as well) of € 1.10 (€ 1.65).

Neither Sweden nor Denmark have any post offices. In Denmark you can send (on postal service) the IRC to an address and they will return a postage stamp to you (at least they did the last time I asked). In Sweden you may ask, but I haven't received any answers.




Nothing new under the sun. In the 1990s, when post offices still existed, an IRC would always get you a postage stamp of the highest face value for a letter abroad. Even though I only wanted to send the letter within Europe, I got a postage stamp for worldwide destinations.

According to the link that Peter provided, UPU plans for the IRC extend to 2026. Yet from the practical knowledge that members brought up here, IRC is a dying trade.
Peter's link provides a list of 74 countries that use it. Sweden, Netherlands, Israel, and the USA are not included.

Actually, Peter's link provides a list of 74 countries that issues the IRC. https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Po...(IRCs)/Lists

According to the FAQ: "Where can I exchange international reply coupons? IRCs can be exchanged in any post office. All UPU member countries and territories are obliged to exchange IRCs."https://www.upu.int/en/Universal-Po...s-(IRCs)/FAQ

Some of these UPU member countries has obscure procedures as how to do this, procedures that are not published by the postal service on their websites.

I find it hard to believe that the UPU will waste time or money on fighting this issue, especially when these countries can blame bureaucracy for the inability to meet their terms.

@Rob Roy, they wont fight the issue since, as you say, it's a dying postal feature. Very few customers know of IRC's and it is not a priority for any Western postal service. But, and this is important, it is possible locally to influence the postal services since they still are under political influence.

If you live in one of the 74 countries which still sells these, it might be a good investment to purchase a few of them and set them aside as modern postal history. I would like to have one dated 2023.

When I am Germany, I need to buy stamps. It would be interesting to see if a German Post Office in a larger town stocks them.