How to buy International Reply Coupons or IRCs?

[A Person]

All member countries of the Universal Postal Union (which includes the USA) are obliged to redeem IRCs.

The International Bureau does not sell IRCs directly to customers; they must buy them from their local post office. Although Posts are not obliged to sell IRCs, it is mandatory for Posts to exchange the coupons. If a Post does not sell IRCs, it is possible to purchase them in a post office located in a neighbouring country.

According to that, you can buy them in Canada and the USPS is obliged to redeem them ...

[jony25]

I have a question:
Do you consider International Reply Coupons (IRC) a Postal Stationery?

Best regards

[Keys]

Unlikely as it is, is there an alternative to the IRC? Heading to England and IRCs are the only method of requesting free tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.

[Liv]

As far as I know the only other option would be sending physical money in the destination currency for postage.

[A Person]

It's rather strange that they would insist in an IRC, given that both the UK & USA have discontinues sales of them.

But I know people have complained to HRP about this in the past, but since that's where they live, they haven't done anything about it. Heaven forbid they should use email tickets - like every airline or cinema, or even have an online creditcard payment form for the postage. It must be part of the historical experience to have to find a discontinued product in order to have the thrill of an actual paper envelope arrive in a fw weeks time.

I thought Terry Pratchett had the last word on the Ceremony of the Keys in "The Last Continent"

It was an old custom, centuries old, and in the summer a few tourists would hang around to watch it, but the Ceremony of the Keys went on every night in every season. Mere ice, wind and snow had never stopped it. Bledlows in times gone past had clambered over tentacled monstrosities to do the Ceremony; they'd waded through floodwater, flailed with their bowler hats at errant pigeons, harpies and dragons, and ignored mere faculty members who'd thrown open their bedroom windows and screamed imprecations on the lines of "Stop that damn racket, will you? What's the point?" They'd never stopped, or even thought of stopping. You couldn't stop Tradition. You could only add to it.

The three men reached the shadows by the main gate, almost blotted out in the whirling snow. The bledlow on duty was waiting for them.

"Halt! Who Goes There?" he shouted.

McAbre saluted. "The Archchancellor's Keys!"

"Pass, The Archchancellor's Keys!"

The Head Bledlow took a step forward, extended both arms in front of him with his palms bent back towards him, and patted his chest at the place where some bledlow long buried had once had two breast pockets. Pat, pat. Then he extended his arms by his sides and stiffly patted the sides of his jacket. Pat, pat.

"Damn! Could Have Sworn I Had Them A Moment Ago!" he bellowed, enunciating each word with a sort of bulldog carefulness.

The gatekeeper saluted. McAbre saluted.

"Have You Looked In All Your Pockets?"

McAbre saluted. The gatekeeper saluted. A small pyramid of snow was building up on his bowler hat.

"I Think I Must Have Left Them On The Dresser. It's Always The Same, Isn't It?"

"You Should Remember Where You Put Them Down!"

"Hang On, Perhaps They're In My Other Jacket!"

The young bledlow who was this week's Keeper of the Other Jacket stepped forward. Each man saluted the other two. The youngest cleared his throat and managed to say:

"No, I Looked In ... There This ... Morning!"

McAbre gave him a slight nod to acknowledge a difficult job done well, and patted his pockets again.

"Hold On, Stone The Crows, They Were In This Pocket After All! What A Muggins I Am!"

"Don't Worry, I Do The Same Myself!"

"Is My Face Red! Forget My Own Head Next!"

Somewhere in the darkness a window creaked up.

"Er, excuse me, gentlemen--"

"Here's The Keys, Then!" said McAbre, raising his voice.

"Much Obliged!"

"I wonder if you could--" the querulous voice went on, apologizing for even thinking of complaining.

"All Safe And Secure" shouted the gatekeeper, handing the keys back.

"--perhaps keep it down a little--"

"Gods Bless All Present!" screamed McAbre, veins standing out on his thick crimson neck.

"Careful Where You Put Them This Time. Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Ho! Ho! Ho!" yelled McAbre, beside himself with fury. He saluted stiffly, went About Turn with an unnecessarily large amount of foot stamping and the ancient exchange completed, marched back to the bledlows' lodge muttering under his breath.

[A Person]

I would suggest you email them at [url][email protected][/url] and ask them how you're supposed to buy an obsolete product that's been discontinued by the Royal Mail and US Postal Service (amongst others)

[Liv]

I'm not sure how long they've been discontinued in the U.K., but that's how we were able to get David Tennant's autograph for Chance.

I have a feeling they'll get some complaints over this.

Maybe not.

There is always the SASE, if you could buy postage from the destination (and then departing) country.

[Madilyn]

Do you know how much IRC's cost to ship to the UK?

[A Person]

Do you know how much IRC's cost to ship to the UK?

The cost of an IRC is set by the country selling them. i.e. if you are in Canada and want to have something sent from the UK then you'd go to Canada Post and buy an IRC for $5.50

Every country is obliged to redeem it for sufficient stamps to send the letter - even if it would cost more in their currency. Theoretically if you could buy an IRC for say $5.50 in Canada and redeem it for stamps worth more in another country. That was the original Ponzi scheme

A few weeks later, Ponzi received a letter from a company in Spain asking about the catalog. Inside the envelope was an international reply coupon (IRC), something which he had never seen before. He asked about it and found a weakness in the system which would, in theory, allow him to make money.

The purpose of the postal reply coupon was to allow someone in one country to send it to a correspondent in another country, who could use it to pay the postage of a reply. IRCs were priced at the cost of postage in the country of purchase, but could be exchanged for stamps to cover the cost of postage in the country where redeemed; if these values were different, there was a potential profit. Inflation after World War I had greatly decreased the cost of postage in Italy expressed in U.S. dollars, so that an IRC could be bought cheaply in Italy and exchanged for U.S. stamps of higher value, which could then be sold. Ponzi claimed that the net profit on these transactions, after expenses and exchange rates, was in excess of 400%. This was a form of arbitrage, or profiting by buying an asset at a lower price in one market and immediately selling it in a market where the price is higher, which is not illegal.

Seeing an opportunity, Ponzi quit his translator's job to set his scheme in motion. He borrowed money and sent it back to relatives in Italy with instructions to buy postal coupons and send them to him. However, when he tried to redeem them, he ran into an avalanche of red tape

However if your question was "What value of UK stamps could an IRC be exchanged for?" or "what is the cost of an airmail letter from the UK to the USA?" the answer is: £0.87 or about $1.50

[A Person]

I'm not sure how long they've been discontinued in the U.K., but that's how we were able to get David Tennant's autograph for Chance."

The UK and USA are still obliged to redeem IRC, just not to sell them. Sales were discontinued last year, about the same time the USA did

[dhosi456]

Do you know how much IRC's cost to ship to the UK?

not expensive

[Dancecolor]

so... if i buy the IRC in Canada,
I can use it in the US, right?
and it will be able to send back to me?

sorry if i get any information wrong.

[Liv]

Yes.

[Marianna]

Does the update, stating that the USPS is no longer selling IRCs, mean that the US Department of State is pulling out of the issuing body, the Universal Postal Union? That would be a shame, we've been a member since 1875, and it hardly seems likely. BTW, the UPU web site still lists the USPS as a participating seller of IRCs, as of today, March 27, 2013. Perhaps the right hand knows not what the left hand does. I hope it's a case of the USPS not knowing what their governing bodies, the US Department of State and the Postal Regulatory Commission have obligated them to sell.

[Marianna]

Stop Press! I just found a work-around for the UK for situations where the person or organization who would be replying to me requires a SASE, but doesn't require it to be in the form of an IRC plus a self-addressed envelope. I just placed an order on the Royal Mail web site http://shop.royalmail.com/products/stam ... at/cat220/ for a small book of stamps. They accepted the order and it will be dispatched tomorrow.

Probably most countries' postal services have an on-line ordering facility, and I expect that at least some of them will send orders to the US.

Current postage rates for various sizes and weights of mail to various places should be available on each country's postal service web site, so one can send the exact postage for the particular item.

My problem is solved. Hope this is helpful to someone else, as well.

[A Person]

Does the update, stating that the USPS is no longer selling IRCs, mean that the US Department of State is pulling out of the issuing body, the Universal Postal Union? That would be a shame, we've been a member since 1875, and it hardly seems likely. BTW, the UPU web site still lists the USPS as a participating seller of IRCs, as of today, March 27, 2013. Perhaps the right hand knows not what the left hand does. I hope it's a case of the USPS not knowing what their governing bodies, the US Department of State and the Postal Regulatory Commission have obligated them to sell.

No, the US (and UK) are still members of the Universal Postal Union. That means they are obliged to honor IRCs but they are not obliged to sell them.

The International Bureau does not sell IRCs directly to customers; they must buy them from their local post office. Although Posts are not obliged to sell IRCs, it is mandatory for Posts to exchange the coupons. If a Post does not sell IRCs, it is possible to purchase them in a post office located in a neighbouring country.

[Guest]

have to go to my Chicago post office tomorrow to get one for Tennants birthday

[Guest]

You can buy an IRC from laposte.fr which the national post servive in France. You can buy it there and have it ship anywhere in the World. The unit price is 1.30 euros but you have to pay the shipping. I ordered one and had it shipped in the US for a total of 3.72 euros (USD 4.90). The only problem is that the web site is in French only... You can paste the url in Google Translate but I'm not sure you can complete the whole transaction process this way though...
You can also buy IRCs in Canada but you can't buy directly from the web site, only from a post office so you need to know someone who can buy it for you and ship it to you. The price in Canada is CAD 5.50.
Since IRCs are not sold anymore in the US, the idea is to buy them from some other country (France is a good example).

[Liv]

Vive la France

[karamtyler]

Thank you!! Three post offices, rudeness, me yelling at a woman and nothing. I've got nothing to show for it but resentment. SO thank you for telling your story and mapping this out!