USPS Service reply - Missing coins

I'll have to have a talk with my local post office. The lady told me that the most the post office would insure anything was $5000. Every time I've mailed insured packages for a lot of money she would give me a look and ask me if I could prove what's in the package. Welcome to small town USA.

 

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I have yet another package that is missing. This time it was a purchase from a person in New York. It has been "stuck" in the system for 20 days. I'm still hopeful that both will eventually show up.
In the defense of the Postal Service, I mailed 15 identical packages that same day, and all were delivered within days, even the one to Spain, except Rob's.
Knowing how many pieces/items the post office distribution center has to deal with daily, I'm surprised even more don't go missing.
I'm keeping all of my fingers crossed that I might see them soon

 

Maybe in a few weeks after you don't receive your package you will show a different hand jesture.

 

Just don't use Air Canada.

This has been a Charly suggestion.

 

You may get that one. Collecting but just got his coin that he won a while back from lord. It’s crazy. Hope you get it!

 

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Insurance

 

I was curious. But of course they always throw in if how what and what ifs?

 

Any package can be insured for up to $5000 but if it’s shipped by Registered Mail it’s up to $25,000. Registered Mail is handled differently. Insured mail travels through the regular mail stream but Registered mail travels under lock and key. It must be signed for every time it changes hands. There is tracking but only to the postal management. All a customer sees is when and where it was dropped off and when and where it was delivered.

 

I live in the country, about 15 miles from town and 1 mile from our home to our mailbox. All packages are held at the post office. I take my coins that I sold and show them to the Post Mistress. I use their packaging material to mail my packages. I take a few pictures as I prepare the package to mail. The Post Mistress watches as I prepare the package to mail with her in the background. I always send them registered and insured. I've never lost a package. The Post Mistress is about 40ish and looks 30. I enjoy my trips to the post office. Any packages that are mailed to me, is held at the post mistress. I get a little slip of paper telling me I have a package. As i said, I enjoy my trips to the post office.

I used to live in the city. The mail is hand delivered by a "letter carrier" to our mail box that is by the front door. It is a common occurrence to find our mail on the floor of the porch. I guess he/she doesn't like to walk up 5 stairs to put our mail in the mailbox. Another problem we have/had (we have two homes) is that the letter carrier doesn't look at the address on the mailbox or the number of our home on the side of the door. Our home is at 209 North Wayne Avenue. Our mail is delivered to 209 North Watauga Street at least twice a month. Mail for 209 North Watauga Avenue is frequently delivered to our home. We're a block away. I've complained to the Postmaster and the letter carrier. Their "excuse" is that their post office does not package mail to be carried to the homes. They said that there is a central receiving in a city about 25 miles away and it is done by a computer. We have owned that home since 1996. The owner of the other residence has been there for about 20 years.
When my wife's mother passed, we moved to her home because she had 5 dogs and a large country yard for her dogs. Our dogs love it too. We're still getting her mail. Due to the trouble with the mail in the city, we now have all of our mail delivered to our home in the country with packages being held at the post office.
Sorry for my longevity, but I want you to know that I have great empathy for you and thanks for all of your stories.
Best of luck.

 

Postal carriers make 2 common mistakes. They get the house numbers mixed up but the deliver to the correct street. The most common mistake they make is the right numbers but the wrong street. Just write on the outside of the envelope “Try Again” or wrong address or wrong street. And drop it back in the mail. If you and the person at the other address do this the carrier will eventually learn.

 

When I lived in rural OK the Saturday mail carrier left two insured signature required packages worth about $2000 in my mailbox (which was about 1/2 mile from my house). Fortunately, I saw the mail truck from my home so I went to the mailbox right away and nothing was in there. The next day for the heck of it I walked down to the mailbox and both packages were in the mailbox. This is a very rural area and over several years had several FedEx packages stolen that were left at my gate before I got home from work. Fortunately, these weren't. The next Monday I got a call at work from the Pauls Valley postmaster asking about the packages and if I would stop by the post office on my way home from work to sign for them after the fact. I suppose that if I was dishonest I could have claimed that I never received them (they were all raw coins) and got my money back from the sellers.

 

One "tactic" when mailing coins (especially gold or silver) is to wrap them in aluminum foil, and tape them down inside the box so they will not move. The aluminum foil creates a faraday cage, and will mask the gold/silver from metal detectors (all they will detect is aluminum). Taping them down, secures them so there is no noise when the box is shaken.

 

Like Jeff, I use Registered Mail whenever my shipment value exceeds $1200. It’s cheaper than paying for the insurance, and the postal workers must scan/account for the package at each handoff and each overnight lockup.

As to proving value, typically, they require some sort of bill of sale.

 

One thing to do is completely encase whatever envelope you are sending in clear packaging tape. Paper will rip in the sorters. Also, i know it costs more, but I always use the flat rate Postal boxes that are designed for the sorters. Your own box, if it is a different size might get caught or destroyed. I then, completely seal that box with strapping tape. I even go the extra mile and use strapping tape on the seams on the inside of the box. Overkill? Maybe? But with things like this photo the extra mile is extra insurance. This had about a 50 dollar kennedy half inside. It was a ddo or tdo or something. 66 or 67. Nothing major. But a little extra tape would have gotten this to me i believe. This seller refunded no problem but it was a loss to him.
Also, I use a pobox because I live in an apartment building. Mail gets crossed into other boxes. In my building a package getting in another box will be marked as delivered but perhaps not to my box. The inhabitants of my building seem like a lot of the less than honest type. They open the package, even by mistake the delivered coin is gone forever. And then someone knows I'm a collector and I could become a target for robbery. My pobox isn't even in the town I live in. It is in another small town 30 minutes away because I was living there when I got it. I leave it there too. Once a package was sent to a wrong box number and they wrote on the package the right one because they know me there and know my box number and put it in my box. And the extra mile saved me. Even in this town if the package made it to the wrong box most of the people in the town would likely take it right in the post office and tell them, this isn't mine. The city i live in not so much trust...

 

Yesterday, I received an envelope with a hole in it, and the postal carrier told me to let him know if anything was missing. The hole wasn’t resealed with the notice of _we screwed up_.

Anyway, the contents were all there, but it did seem odd. This package “disappeared” for a day in Utah.

@Mountain Man: Did you already file a search inquiry for the package with USPS? Usually they need to be notified, so they can do an investigation.

 

Yes, I did and the post is the response I got.

 

Wrapping them in something that doesn't let them move, and then taping that so that it can't shift, is an excellent idea.

I'm not sure what kind of "metal detectors" you have in mind, but I can't think of any for which wrapping PMs in aluminum foil would mask them effectively.

 

I've got a friend who's worked at the USPS for over 30 years. She tells me the process in which certified/registered is handled. They keep it locked up in safes and anyone who handles it during the transitioning process has to sign documents as an accountability measure. I'd bet if coins come up missing, someone at the post office stole them or they fell out.

Shortly after I came back from the 91' Persian Gulf War, I separated from active duty. In 93' I found out that there were a few medals that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had issued my unit for our service in regards to the operations that we conducted. I had gotten out before I received these medals. So I contacted the DOD and they mailed me not only the medals I had not received, but also every medal I had earned while serving active duty. The point is, when I got the package, it was broken open but luckily nothing was missing. How does that happen? I think that someone at the Post Office ripped it open to see what was inside and seeing the medals, didn't feel they wanted to take them since they weren't really of any monetary value, unlike silver & gold. I was super happy to get them though.

 

Glad to hear that you received them but they could have been opened as you described or it could have been opened by a machine. The equipment and machinery used to handle packages of all sizes dies cause damage from time to time. I’ve seen a machine open a package like it was ripped open and another looked like it was cut open with a knife.
You wouldn’t believe what happens to a coin, nail file or anything else that’s put into an envelope.

 

Insurance is a funny thing, you feel very
comfortable having it, but when something goes a stray, it isn’t that easy to collect and can turn in to a real nightmare