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Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

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41–50 of 141 posts

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#41

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

I regularly get USPS notices of delivery at my house, where packages, according to the USPS delivery tracker, were "left in or around the mail box" or were "given directly to a resident" but they don't actually show up for hours or until sometime in the next few days.

It is far from inconceivable for a postcard to be lost in USPS-land and then years-later complete its journey, getting a bar code affixed. This would not be the first time this has happened. Other times, entire bags of sorted mail were lost and recovered decades later and then delivered.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#42

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

> We did reach out to the post office for comment and a spokesperson told me, “In most cases these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our network and later found. What we typically find is that old letters and postcards – sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online – are re-entered into our system. The end result is what we do best – as long as there is a deliverable address an…

Post office says postmark is from 1920 the age and legitimacy of the origin of the card is correct. It was lost in 1920 in the mail or it was received kept for so long that it ended up being antique postcard that went through storefront market resold to somebody in modern times And they placed it in the mailbox.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#43

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

There are no shenanigans here.

The remote barcoding system is used for hand written addresses and the post office adds them.

Typically when someone uses Inteligent Mail Barcode, they mechanize the address too. And if you are going for a spoof, you wouldn’t encode an IMB if you are hand writing the address.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Bar_Coding_System

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#44

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

[deleted]

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#45

Is this a distraction story from USPS?

I like the scepticism! But the fact that the story was posted by the recipient of the post card, to a Facebook Group, and then only hit the news after going viral means it probably wasn't done by a PR company. Having done some of this "black hat PR" myself I can tell you that we don't typically cover our tracks that well. We almost always plant bullshit by going to the news outlets themselves, or paying a blogger to…

A blog post with your experience -even heavily redacted- would be interesting on the black-hat PR/public opinion swaying as a separate topic if you ever feel inclined.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#46

In 2120, we'll be reading "votes sent by mail delivered 100 years later".

The post office will have time machine by then to get back and deliver on time and change the temporarily altered history. May be we already living in that alternative branch.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year I bought a house and moved out of my apartment. So far I have received 1) two stimulus checks for the two deceased owners of the house 2) funeral home bills 3) family photos they sent and got returned

The third one really got me sad, did you successfully sent it back to its intended recipient?

How would you do that, burn them?

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#48

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

The barcode is printed on the postcard in the sorting facilities after the recipient’s address has been read.

If the mail got lost on its way to the sorting facility, it was probably never stamped and therefore just had to be thrown into a mailbox again.

The barcode would have been printed this year when the postcard was processed in the sorting facility.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#49

I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long…

There are no shenanigans here. The remote barcoding system is used for hand written addresses and the post office adds them. Typically when someone uses Inteligent Mail Barcode, they mechanize the address too. And if you are going for a spoof, you wouldn’t encode an IMB if you are hand writing the address. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Bar_Coding_System

Exactly. The barcode is added in the sorting facility, not at the post office and not by the sender.
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