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Just 1d. would buy 2 or 3 cakes.
Quote from: Don_1 on 07/12/2008 11:26:58This will get you arrested and slung in the choky 'at Her Majesties’ Pleasure' where they will have to feed you and generally look after you. AND IT WON'T COST YOU A PENNY.AND...you'll make some interesting new friends. []
This will get you arrested and slung in the choky 'at Her Majesties’ Pleasure' where they will have to feed you and generally look after you. AND IT WON'T COST YOU A PENNY.
One subject that often crops up at Hellmail is the practice of re-using stamps. It would be almost impossible to estimate just how many pre-used stamps actually go through Royal Mail sorting equipment undetected but in principle, if a stamp is unfranked it is likely to be accepted a second or even third time. This all sounds like a schoolboy crime and barely worth reporting were it not for the fact that Royal Mail must lose thousands of pounds annually through people re-using stamps. Not only that, the trade in recycled stamps on Ebay seems to be fairly lucrative with as much as 100 pre-used 1st class stamps up for offers - at a knock-down price. Sorting equipment is supposed to cancel stamps as items of mail go through the system but as capacity and speeds increase, the failure rate on stamp franking is probably growing with it. There simply aren't enough eyes at Royal Mail to catch every one. The Royal Mail sees all kinds of tricks used to recycle stamps too, including covering them with tape so that the recipient can remove the tape and the franking mark (not always successful I might add), but stamps do surface that haven't been cancelled at all and it is estimated that many stamps get a second chance by both individuals and companies.If Royal Mail suspect that the stamp has been used then the item will be held and the person to whom you are sending it will have to pay the price of the stamp, plus a £1 handling charge. It is illegal to re-use a stamp in the UK because stamped mail is protected by the crown. Stamp re-use has always been a problem though, and various ideas have been tried to outwit the unscrupulous. The French Government in 1849 made a law making it illegal to wash or clean used French postage stamps. Almost 15,000 individuals were charged under this law within six years from its implementation so this isn't a new problem by any means.Some U.S. stamps from 1867-1871 were impressed with a small square waffle iron type pattern of parallel rows. This broke the fibers of the stamp enough to allow the ink to penetrate thoroughly through the paper, creating a blotched, more blackened cancel. Flourescent dyes and other inks have all been tried but clearly if processing equipment misses a stamp, it misses it.Royal Mail introduced the option of online postage which does rule out re-use but the concept isn't likely to take over for the next ten years or more and the trade in second-hand stamps continues unabated, costing Royal Mail a small fortune. Combatting it remains a real problem but perhaps as technology improves, sorting equipment may, finally, put paid to those currently abusing the system.Personally, if I was looking to save money on postage, I'd opt for second class. The thought of steaming stamps from envelopes just to save a few pence and effectively cheat not only Royal Mail but all those employed by it would depress me enormously.The biggest question is just where are these Ebay traders getting their hands on so many uncancelled stamps?© Hellmail.co.uk - Postal Industry News
I think that this is one of the most profound questions ever asked on this site.The only practical suggestion, so far, can only work for a minority of people; if everyone got their food from the rubbish bins there would be no one left to create the rubbish.Unless you have the requisite expertise to hunt and/or farm, and somewhere to do it, you can't survive independently; you need money to obtain food because without food you die. Money, thus in the current world, controls your degree of independence, or in other words, your degree of freedom. With no money you have no freedom because your only choices are to do whatever is demanded of you to obtain money, or starve and die. If you have more money you get more freedom, in terms of choices; Instead of having to comply with an order to do something in order to obtain money for food, or die, you can refuse the order and still live.The significance of this is that the notion that we, as individuals, are free is largely illusory. Whoever controls money controls us all, to varying degrees. Now if you are of the opinion that we, as individuals, should serve society, which is an abstract super-organism in which we are the equivalent of individual cells, this won't bother you very much but if you think that society should serve the individuals that comprise it then it's very disturbing because it is the mechanisms such as government, within society, that control the money, thus resulting in the dog being wagged by the tail.