Royal Mail, the British postal and courier service began switching all snail mail stamps to barcoded stamps last year. The purpose of the barcode was to enhance security, deter stamp reuse, and possibly prevent forgeries—which it has failed to do.

If a stamp have a barcode, why not just let people who have printers at home to print it on the envelope directly? This eliminates the need to buy physical stamp, thus the probability of buying counterfeit stamps.

  • @OlapEnglish
    11•9 months ago

    Yes, but the stamps have mostly been bought from the post office, who get it from royal mail. Given how few people even bother with stamps these days, what’s more likely? An organised gang infiltrating supply chains with undetectable forgeries, or an IT malfunction that means the codes are not being registered properly in the first place? I know where my money is!

    • @[email protected]English
      6•9 months ago

      Especially with the history of the royal mail, it systems and wrongfully accusing people.

      • @OlapEnglish
        4•9 months ago

        That’s the post office, not royal mail, but really any large company could make this fuckup

    • umami_wasabiOPEnglish
      3•9 months ago

      You might be right. I spent a little time to gone through a few online shops, including Chinese, and couldn’t find one that I can tell it’s clearly counterfeit. Unless I bought it and Royal Mail have something for me to verify its authenticity.