![]() Various postal markings were used at the facility from 1889 onward. The facility was initially known as the Returned Letter Branch, but later on it was also referred to as the Returned Letter Office or Dead Letter Office. In Malta, undeliverable mail was sorted in the General Post Office in Valletta. Domestic mail which is still undeliverable after passing through NUMO is then destroyed, while incoming international undeliverable mail is returned to the country of origin. Other names include returned letter office or undeliverable mail office.Ĭanada Post sends mail which is not deliverable to the Undeliverable Mail Office (NUMO) at Mississauga, Ontario, or North Sydney, Nova Scotia. ĭead letter offices go by different names in different countries. Despite this practice, in the past some undeliverable envelopes were acquired by philatelists. If the letter or parcel is still undeliverable, valuable items are then auctioned off while the correspondence is usually destroyed. ![]() ![]() If an address is found, the envelope is usually sealed using tape or postal seals, or enclosed in plastic bags and delivered. Mail is considered to be undeliverable when the address is invalid so it cannot be delivered to the addressee, and there is no return address so it cannot be returned to the sender.Īt a DLO, mail is usually opened to try to find an address to forward to. September 1922Ī dead letter office ( DLO) is a facility within a postal system where undeliverable mail is processed. ĭead letter office, probably in Washington, D.C. Collectors of postal markings also use this method in order to receive uncommon postal markings seldom seen in everyday mail. People interested in postal services throughout the world sometimes deliberately send mail to fictional addresses throughout the world to see if a particular nation's postal authority would return the mail to the sender. Genuinely used examples are highly prized by collectors, although mint labels, because they have no postage value, are often fairly common. Many countries, including Canada and the United States, have issued special labels for envelopes that have travelled through the dead letter office. Some very valuable items have turned up in undeliverable mail, including a stolen painting by Marc Chagall which turned up in a United States Postal Service sorting center in Topeka, Kansas in January 2002. Countries must also set up regulations for the disposal of dead letters, particularly when they contain items of value. Ĭlassification as a dead letter is one of the few instances where postal personnel are allowed to violate secrecy of correspondence, ostensibly to search for clues as to the letter's origin or destination. ![]() A few journal articles and at least one recently published book (Canadian) dealing with this topic have appeared. As it is performed by internal departments within postal administrations, little information about the dead letter office function has ever been made public. The term 'dead mail' is perhaps a misnomer, and several jurisdictions have opted for the use of the term 'undeliverable mail' as more clearly representing the status of the item whose transmission has been impeded. ![]() Largely based on the British model that emerged in the late eighteenth century, many countries developed similar systems for processing undeliverable mail. This is usually due to lack of compliance with postal regulations, an incomplete address and return address, or the inability to forward the mail when both correspondents move before the letter can be delivered. 2008 Russian letter with affixed return label and reason for return checkedĭead letter mail or undeliverable mail is mail that cannot be delivered to the addressee or returned to the sender. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |