PalenQ

On the weekend of Mar 10-11 post offices throughout the Hexagon started selling a series of stamps featuring Harry Potter characters.

The schoolboy-wizard himself appears on a stamp for domestic priority mail; feckly Ron Weasley on those for regular domestic mail; Miss Hermione Granger on those for international correspondance.

Possible souvenir for Potter fans and on postcards to them?

kerouac

Please note that these stamps do not have amounts printed on them, so only the H. Granger stamp is authorized on international mail. You are not supposed to mix domestic rate stamps with no amount on them with additional stamps for the added postage amount. So you should only use the Hermione Granger stamps on international mail.

PalenQ

that's my understanding from this end as well. Nevertheless i've gotten about a hundred post cards from France with two domestic rate stamps with no value printed on them so rule seems to be neglected except at post offices. But good point.

kerouac

You are correct -- most postal workers ignore the rule. But I have still not recovered from an incident regarding a large amount of mail to the US that never arrived from Belgium, after the Belgian post office itself offered to sell me some colorful stamps with no denomination and add a few extra stamps to cover the difference. So I am very wary of stamps with no amounts on them outside of the country.

PalenQ

I have had mail returned to me in the US as well using a generic stamp so to be sure make sure the stamp has a numerical value on it.

Jack - curious do they print the domestic two types of rate stamps with no value on them because rates change and then these stamps are valid for the new rate? that's the only reason i can think after years of seeing largely no-value indicated stamps on mail in France.

The U.S. just went to that - a non-denominated stamp good for first class basic rate and will be good forever regardless of future rate increases.

Our previous non-denominated stamps were printed so because the exact rate wasn't decided so they started printing the A-H series, etc. just to have a supply when the rate went up but they were only valid at the previous rate

Is it the same in France - if i buy a non-denomiated stamp can i use it forever without some make-up stamp?

If you don't know ignore this. Thanks. I really enjoy the tremendous insights into Paris and France you constantly supply Fodorites.

kerouac

Yes, the red generic stamp is valid at the domestic priority rate forever. Same for the generic green stamp for the non-priority domestic rate. But now there are dozens of other stamps with permanent validity, just marked "20g" for the maximum weight. This includes all sorts of "Happy Birthday" "It's a boy!" "It's a girl!" "Thank you" etc. Even the Chinese New Year stamp this year with a happy pig on it is just marked "20g".