INTERNATIONAL REPLY COUPONS
A reminder that if you have any of the current International Reply Coupons (IRCs), they have an expiry date of 31st December 2017 and should be redeemed at Post Offices before this date.
Although post offices in the United Kingdom no longer sell IRCs, they are still obliged to exchange them for stamps as a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU). Currently you will receive a £1.17 stamp for each IRC in the UK.
As IRCs are rarely used nowadays, Post Office staff are unlikely to know how to redeem them initially, but their system still has an option to redeem IRCs (under vouchers) on their screens. I have redeemed IRCs in recent months at Trafalgar Square Post Office in London, and yesterday at the main post office in Reading town centre.
Please do not send any of the IRCs with expiry date 31.12.2017 to the club now, as we will not be able to redeem these.
The new design IRC has an expiry date of 31.12 2021 and is pictured here:
http://www.upu.int/en/activities/international-reply-coupons/new-illustration-for-2017-2021.html
The UPU website also lists countries still selling IRCs:
http://www.upu.int/en/activities/international-reply-coupons/countries-selling-ircs.html
73s (Alan Pennington, Dec 20, BDXC-UK yg via DXLD)
What is the status of IRCs in the USA with the USPS???? (gh, DXLD)
