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Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

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Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#31

Post by julianlam »

credit_guy wrote: post #27

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 and postage, the card or letter gets delivered.”

A bit of a sensationalized headline. Just an old postcard, the postmark is recent.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#32

Post by cpeterso »

TuringNYC wrote: post #8

Like many office buildings in NYC, my employer's building had a system of air-pressured mail tubes. I understand (now) that they are kept in some cases as decoration, historical artifact, or due to the building being designated a historical monument (not sure if internals are covered (?). We didn't understand that as first, and several colleagues and I put postcards and some expense reports into them. I can see the p…

Do you know where the mail tubes sent your postcards and expense reports? Did they end up in some basement or were they lost in the tubes forever?

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#33

Post by tantalor »

julianlam wrote: post #31
credit_guy wrote: post #27

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…

> sensationalized headline

No, the postmark is 1920 according to the article.

See https://i.imgur.com/r8HqDc2.png

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#34

Post by jacobush »

null_deref wrote: post #29
amir734jj wrote: post #25

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?

Beyond the great unknown?

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#35

Post by codezero »

TuringNYC wrote: post #8

Like many office buildings in NYC, my employer's building had a system of air-pressured mail tubes. I understand (now) that they are kept in some cases as decoration, historical artifact, or due to the building being designated a historical monument (not sure if internals are covered (?). We didn't understand that as first, and several colleagues and I put postcards and some expense reports into them. I can see the p…

Two of my offices have had these and at both, we've had engineers constructing insane devices to retrieve things they dropped in :)

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#36

Post by jacobush »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #17
fiftyacorn wrote: post #11

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…

They can afford it, with all the subsidies the get from the USPS when delivering to non-urban places.

Amazon is a cancer in Congress.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#37

Post by codezero »

wtn wrote: post #30
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Improbable things happen frequently at scale. One possible scenario is just that this card got lost twice. It could have slipped behind a counter at the original post office and been uncovered when that office was decommissioned 35 years later. Then it would have made its way to a newer sorting facility where either it could have been misplaced again or, more likely, been stuffed in a cabinet somewhere (as I doubt US…

USPS was probably much more adamant about delivering lost mail in the 1950s. The level of service was higher, with twice daily delivery.

I never knew they did twice daily deliver, time to google up some more info!

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#38

Post by [deleted] »

credit_guy wrote: post #27

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

#39

Post by toby- »

tantalor wrote: post #33
julianlam wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> sensationalized headline No, the postmark is 1920 according to the article. See https://i.imgur.com/r8HqDc2.png

Can it not have multiple postmarks? The stamp at the top (which says 1920) and the modern barcode underneath?

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#40

Post by uses »

> 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 and postage, the card or letter gets delivered.”
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