Ever wonder what would happen if you put coins instead of a stamp on a letter?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Some guy tried it.


Here is what happened:

http://monkeyfaq.com/mail/index.html

[originalpckelly]

1. HAHA!

I'm going to try that sometime. I'll mail it to myself or something!

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Don't forget the tip!

LOL

[brazos121200]

4. The extra weight of the coins will make the postage for the

letter go up, then more coins for the extra postage would again cause the postage to go up... an infinitum.

[SmokingJacket]

9. You'd have to tape a dollar bill somehow. nt

[EST]

3. The pictures at this site were taking too long to download

on dialup so I stopped the process.
However, here in rural America, the traveling postal carrier is regarded as a mini post office.

We do it all the time-well not all the time, but as necessary-and the mail carrier takes off the money and appends a stamp. No big deal-been doing that since forever, almost.

[wellstone dem]

6. Ah yes, leave money in the mail box, receive stamps

Thanks for reminding me.

[skids]

5. heh. That's even better than...

...getting mail delivered by putting the destination as the return address and forgetting the stamp.

(not recommended, don't mess with the USPS, mail fraud can lead to major jail time.)

[Buzz Clik]

7. Actually, this wasn't all that bad of an outcome.

There were worse scenarios:

1. The letter is never seen again, and some postal worker is 44 cents richer. (Richer?)
2. The letter comes back for postage with no money at all.


Waaaay back in the day, a friend of mine tried something somewhat similar. Back when beer cans didn't have pull tops and the cans were nearly oblivious to penetration by sharp objects, my buddy decided to send a can of Coors from Golden, CO to he dad on the East Coast. He put the proper postage and a mailing label directly on the can. It arrived unscathed.

[EST]

15. Ah yes, those were the days.

I'd like to see one of the latter day macho red necks smash one of those on his drunken manly forehead. And remember red refrigerator coke machines with the handle thingy on the front so you could punch holes in the tops of those steel cans-middlin' sanitary.

[Pugee]

8. Or if you mailed a dead fish? unwrapped rose? football?

These guys mailed items with addresses written on them to see what would arrive and how long it would take. Some were refused:

--Helium balloon. The balloon was attached to a weight. The address was written on the balloon with magic marker; no postage was affixed. Our operative argued strongly that he should be charged a negative postage and refunded the postal fees, because the transport airplane would actually be lighter as a result of our postal item. This line of reasoning merely received a laugh from the clerk. The balloon was refused; reasons given: transportation of helium, not wrapped.--

But, most were mailed as is.


http://www.directcreative.com/aaexperiments.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. LOL

Sound-emitting toy. A monkey-in-box toy that, upon shaking, shouted, "Let me out of here! Help! Let me out of here!" Addressed in big letters to LITTLE JOHNNIE. Sound toy was equipped with a new battery. Delivery at doorstep, 6 days.

[Katherine Brengle]

11. Interesting, but it shouldn't have been delivered...

technically.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Well we can't be sure that it was

We just have this guy's word for it.

[Crabby Appleton]

13. I live on the outskirts of a rural small town

stick a note and some money on the letter and put it in your own mailbox, the postal fairy takes care of the rest.

[Earth_First]

14. Wouldn't the weight of the coins cause additional postage to be required...

I believe that it would be refused for lack of adequate postage...

[krispos42]

16. Two observations:

1) The thickness and rigidity of the coins might break some delicate machinery. It would be a hell of a bill to get.

2) The pictures on the web site have the girlfriend's address blurred out, but not the sender. Oopsie!

Let's mail him a can of Coors.

[Dead_Parrot]

18. You'd cheer someone up.

It's a hall of residence at Drexel University, so probably someone else now. But I'm sure random acts of beer are always welcome... :)

[Dead_Parrot]

17. A friend and I had some fun in the UK...

He sent a letter (without postage) to a totally fictional address in Australia, with my address on the back as a 'return' address: after about 6 weeks it made it to my house. I put a fictional address in South Africa on it and sent it back the same way (about a month for that one).

He tried it again via Canada and it vanished, sadly...