Old Letters
Updated February 2005
PS-091 (133.3.4)
This Customer Support Ruling
discusses
whether the age of documents affects their status as handwritten or
typewritten matter that is mailable only at First-Class Mail or
Express Mail rates.
At issue is a parcel sent through the mail that
contained handwritten letters. The letters varied in age, but none
had been written recently.
Domestic Mail Manual
(DMM) 133.3.4* prescribes that matter wholly or partially in
handwriting or typewriting must be mailed as First-Class Mail or
Express Mail, except authorized written additions to Periodicals,
Standard Mail, and Package Services.
The classification of handwritten and typewritten
documents under section is contingent upon neither the age of the
documents, nor on whether they have previously passed through the
mails, or are sent individually or in parcels. Handwritten or
typewritten letters and other documents are mailable only at the
First-Class Mail or Express Mail rates of postage regardless of when
they were produced. Thus, the package of old handwritten letters
was required to be mailed as First-Class Mail.
*See also DMM 233.3, 333.3, and 433.3.
(Signed)
Sherry Suggs Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service Washington DC 20260-3436
|