International reply coupon
Encyclopedia
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
s representing the minimum postage for an unregistered priority airmail letter of up to twenty grams sent to another Universal Postal Union
Universal Postal Union
The Universal Postal Union is an international organization that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system. The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration , the Postal Operations Council and the...
(UPU) member country. IRCs are accepted by all UPU member countries.
UPU member postal services are obliged to exchange an IRC for postage, but are not obliged to sell them.
The purpose of the IRC is to allow a person to send someone in another country a letter, along with the cost of postage for a reply. If the addressee is within the same country, there is no need for an IRC because a self-addressed stamped envelope
Self-addressed stamped envelope
A self-addressed stamped envelope , stamped self-addressed envelope , or just self addressed envelope in the UK, is an envelope with the sender's name and address on it, with affixed paid postage and mailed to a company or private individual...
(SASE) will suffice; but if the addressee is in another country an IRC removes the necessity of acquiring foreign postage or sending appropriate currency
Currency
In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
.
History
The IRC was introduced in 1906 at a Universal Postal Union congress in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. At the time an IRC could be exchanged for a single-rate, ordinary postage stamp for surface delivery to a foreign country, as this was before the introduction of airmail
Airmail
Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...
services. An IRC is exchangeable in a UPU member country for the minimum postage of a priority or unregistered airmail letter to a foreign country.
The current IRC, available since July 1, 2009, is called the "Nairobi" model, and is available from post offices in more than 70 countries. IRCs are ordered from the UPU headquarters in Bern, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, by postal authorities. They are generally available at large post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
s; in the U.S., they are requisitioned along with regular domestic stamps by any post office that has sufficient demand for them.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in September 2011, the purchase price was $2.10USD. IRCs purchased in foreign countries could be used in United States toward the purchase of postage stamps and embossed stamped envelopes at the current one-ounce First Class International rate ($0.98 USD as of January 2, 2011) per coupon.
IRCs are often used by amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
operators sending QSL cards to each other; it has traditionally been considered good practice and common courtesy to include an IRC when writing to a foreign operator and expecting a reply by mail.
Previous editions of the IRC, the "Beijing" model and all subsequent versions, bear an expiration date. Consequently, a new IRC will be issued every three years. The current IRC will become obsolete on 31 December 2013. Current stockpiles in the hands of users should be expended by then, or exchanged for the new issue to be introduced at that time. The current issue IRC may be exchanged until 31 December 2013 (date printed on coupon).
The Ponzi scheme
The profit that could be made by taking advantage of the differing postal rates in different countries to buy IRCs cheaply in one country and exchange them for stamps to a larger value in another country was the intended profit generator for a scheme operated by Charles PonziCharles Ponzi
Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, , commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was a businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. Born in Italy, he became known as a swindler in North America for his money making scheme. His aliases include Charles Ponei, Charles P. Bianchi, Carl and Carlo...
, which became the fraudulent Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
; in practice the overhead on buying and selling large amounts of the very low-value IRCs precluded profitability.
The selling price and exchange value in stamps in each country were since adjusted to some extent to remove some of the potential for profit, but ongoing fluctuations in cost of living and exchange rates make it impossible to achieve this completely.