Can I stilll use a 24p stamp?

noonesperfect

I want to send a Christmas card to France which will cost 48p according to the Royal Mail website.

You can't buy 24p stamps any more (as far as I can tell!) but I have a couple in my purse I could use if they're still legal tender, so to speak.

Don't suppose anyone would know? I want to be sure this card will arrive.

looby-loo_2

I think to send abroad you need to use stamps with the price in p written on them and old stamps will be OK so long as they add up to 48p

You can't use those which just say 1st or 2nd without the price in p

HariboJunkie

looby-loo wrote: »

I think to send abroad you need to use stamps with the price in p written on them and old stamps will be OK so long as they add up to 48p

You can't use those which just say 1st or 2nd without the price in p

I didn't know that! I always bulk buy stamps with first or second on them before they go up in price and use them according to their value. I had no idea they had to have the price on them to go abroad.

Alfie_E

HariboJunkie wrote: »

looby-loo wrote: »

You can't use those which just say 1st or 2nd without the price in p

I didn't know that!

That’s because it’s not the case. There are even Non-Value Indicator (NVI) stamps for sending abroad. That’s ones without a penny value.

Airmail letter up to 20g or postcard to all European destinations
Value: 48p

For Airmail postcards¹ to all destinations worldwide
maximum size 120mm x 235mm
Value: 54p

For Airmail letters or cards up to 40g to all European destinations
Value: 69p

For Airmail letters or cards up to 40g to all destinations worldwide²
Value: £1.24

Unforunately, the first of those is no longer issued; see The current range of stamps is… on Royal Mail’s Stamps page³. It does, of course, retain its value. As noonesperfect has already pointed it, you can just use two 2nd class Letter stamps. I think that was even the case before the most recent price increases. Alternatively, you could use a single 1st class Large Letter stamp.

NVIs, when used alone or in combination, represent a stamp with the current value for the indicated service. That includes those stamps shown above, along with the Letter and Large Letter stamps for 1st and 2nd class UK delivery that you’re probably more familiar with. For more about NVI Machins⁴, see question and answer 16 in MachinMania.com’s The Machin FAQ and this definitive list of both current and historical NVI Machins from Great Britain Machins.

Notes

1. This also covers worldwide letters up to 10g.
2. At this weight point, World Zone 1 and World Zone 2 start to have different prices. This stamp is for World Zone 2. If you are sending to World Zone 1, the cost is only £1.17.
3. That page contains an error. Someone’s copied across the value for the first Europe Small Packet rate to the Worldwide (NVI) row.
4. They’re called Machins after the designer Arnold Machin, who produced the design for the modern stamp we see today.

witchypoo

Your pence stamps will still be fine to use if they add up to the correct value. You can always buy 1p and 2p stamps over the counter to make old stamps up to current rate.

Incidentally, when I send ebay parcels abroad I often just whack a load of first or second class stamps (marked 1st or 2nd) on it to the value of the postage (or I allow it to go slightly over), when I cannot get to a Post Office. I have never been picked up on this. Nobody has ever complained or not received their parcel. The denomination of many is worked out the same, just multiply the value of one by the quantity used. The only thing that changes with the stamps marked 1st or 2nd is occasionally there is a price rise but it just means if you have bought in bulk they don't lose any value when there's a price increase.

noonesperfect

The stamps I have are the old-fashioned lick and stick type and have been in my purse for years! (if I look a bid hard I'd probably find some with halfpennies on )

They aren't the new 1st or 2nd class stamps.

It sounds like it will be ok to use them anyway. Sort of tan colour, Queen's head and 24P on.....

Well th letter's gone now.Thanks muchly for your replies.

looby-loo_2

I'm sorry if my information is wrong:o I read it on the inside cover of one of those little booklets of six or ten (?) stamps years ago after a postmaster had told me I couldn't use stamps saying '1st' for a letter going to Germany. I expect the rules have changed as it was a long time ago. (oh dear, I'm getting old)

Bogof_Babe

My husband asked in the local post office the other day for some European stamps to send Christmas cards to Ireland and France, and they told him he would have to have the cards weighed to work out how much postage was needed. As he didn't have them with him, he left empty handed .

Seems like overkill to me :rolleyes: .

noonesperfect

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

My husband asked in the local post office the other day for some European stamps to send Christmas cards to Ireland and France, and they told him he would have to have the cards weighed to work out how much postage was needed. As he didn't have them with him, he left empty handed .

Seems like overkill to me :rolleyes: .

The least they could've done was given him an information leaflet!

This might help you work out what it's going to cost you at the PO:-

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=53800712&catId=400036

Luckily my kitchen scales are pretty accurate, so having weighed the card and envelope and finding it weighed less than 20g I knew it needed 48p's worth of stamps (checked RM website for that info)

noonesperfect

looby-loo wrote: »

I'm sorry if my information is wrong:o I read it on the inside cover of one of those little booklets of six or ten (?) stamps years ago after a postmaster had told me I couldn't use stamps saying '1st' for a letter going to Germany. I expect the rules have changed as it was a long time ago. (oh dear, I'm getting old)

I feel like that myself sometimes, ever-shifting sands of time and all that.....it doesn't seem that long since there was only 1pence between 1st and 2nd class and the latter was 3.5p!!!!! (scary the 70's don't seem long ago)

[Deleted User]

OP I am still using first and second class stamps that I bought in bulk a fair while ago. No problem at all

I wouldn`t use them for abroad