What does registered mail cover?

8 posts
Have you been thinking about what does registered mail cover, and what is the difference between priority mail, registered mail and insured mail?
I'm not very happy to use registered mail, because it costs much (regular charge + 10 eur) and does cover only about 30 eur totally (including shipment costs and content value).
This will differ from country to country, but I'd also like to hear what members from different parts of the world think about this topic.
In Germany, the surcharge for a registered letter isn't all too bad - 2,50 €. So sending a single coin or a few small ones registered will cost me 4 € worldwide (up to 50g), a padded envelope up to 500g 6,20 € registered or 3,70 € unregistered.

The registered letter insurance doesn't really cover anything here. 25 € is the sum, but "means of payment" are generally excluded. I would think that argueing with the Post's legal department whether demonetized coins are means of payment or collector items wouldn't be worth it in most cases.

The priority mail sticker seems to be a remnant from old times, where you could choose between airmail and land transportation. Nowadays, you can get them at no surcharge at the post office or print them out from their webpage and put them on your letters. From my experience, all letters, with or without the priority mark on it are sent with airmail anyways, not only overseas. No matter if I send to Latvia, Portugal, Finland, or even nearby France, all letters go through the international mail center near Frankfurt airport and arrive at the largest airport in the destination country. Only those to The Netherlands and Belgium seem to be transported by land, which only makes sense, as both borders are less than 100km away from me. I'd assume it is the same for Luxembourg, but I haven't sent there.

There's a product called "Wertbrief" here (Valeur déclarée in UPU terms), and the surcharge is 2,50 € plus 2 € per 100 € liability. So if I am sending a padded envelope up to 500g with products worth 500 €, the postage would be 3,70 € + 2,50 € + 10 € = 16,2 €. These Valeur déclarée letters explicitly include coins and precious metals, such as silver and gold. I have never used this.

I usually leave the decision on whether to send registered or unregistered to my swap partner and am happy to do what he proposes. Good ratings and Numista reputation as well as a friendly swap dialogue help. Especially within the EU, nothing really gets lost.

In some cases, the possibility to track is a nice feature. I find it comforting to know that my letter has been idling in Moscow for 10 days before being forwarded, rather than getting angry thinking about being scammed.
And then there are countries like Costa Rica, where there is no home delivery in many areas. You just address the letter to a post office and the recipient has to pick it up from there. As they only hold a letter for 7 to 10 days there and the transit between Germany and CR can be anything between 5 and 30 days, tracking is a useful tool for the recipient to see when it arrived there.

Ollisaarinen, I know of the high postages in Finland and have read the same about The Netherlands and Belgium on the forum. If I lived in one of those countries, I'd do exactly as you do and only use registered mail in special cases.
It's the bane of my numismatic life and a conversation you and I have had before my friend. I can only speak of matters from the US perspective but it's interesting to read of experiences in those from other parts of the world. I find that overseas collectors don't realise just how expensive shipping is from the USA and they are shocked to learn that on top of the already inflated prices it costs an extra $13+ for registered mail. I reckon you guys in Finland understand this better than most.

The only benefits of registered mail are that it includes tracking and a certain amount of insurance, I think it's $50 domestically and $100 overseas but you can purchase extra in $50 increments. Honest folks don't need tracking numbers(!) and as to the insurance, well it sounds great in theory but in practice it's worthless.

First of all, let's say we are mailing a $100 coin via registered mail. If it going overseas then you have to fill out a customs form which includes the value of the contents. If I put down $100, the parcel will be held at the point of entry until the recipient pays import duties which might be anything up to 20%. So we all agree to state the value as $10 or so, that's the way every single person I've dealt with does things. Items below a certain threshold are tax exempt. It varies by country but $20 is a good rule of thumb. If the parcel gets lost and you try to claim $100 from the insurance you can be absolutely sure that they are going to want to know why the figures on the customs form and the claim form don't match up. Claim denied!

Well, you could put the value down as $100 and let your trading partner pay the import taxes and then the insurance would cover your loss, right? Wrong. Most countries prohibit the export of money and don't distinguish between laundering drug money and coin collectors swapping old coins. It's crazy and wrong but that's governments for ya! If you put down "coins" in the description of the contents two things are likely to happen, the Post Office will refuse to accept the parcel or, if you are able to convince them to accept it, the mail handlers will steal it en route. So once again if you need to file a claim the insurers will want to know why a $100 coin was described as "hobby supplies". Claim denied.

If all the above doesn't convince y'all of the futile nature of insurance..... hold my beer and watch this -

Parcels mailed within the US include free tracking (great) and $50 of free insurance (not so great) As there's no need for customs forms it should be straightforward. Actually, it is, if you lose a parcel full of coins the PO will reimburse you.... at face value. I know of a guy who was mailing a parcel with 13 very high grade Indian Head Cents. I can't remember the exact value but as you may imagine it was several hundred dollars so he even paid a few dollars more for some extra coverage. The tracking showed that the parcel was legitimately lost in transit so they sent him a cheque for 13c. This was a few years ago and was widely discussed among various coin communities. I'm not sure if a settlement was reached or if it's still the case today.

The best and only insurance is a trading partner you can trust. Almost without exception "lost in the mail" sob stories are fraudulent. It just doesn't happen.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
Extra $4 in Japan.

This are my two cents...

If someone wants registered mail, that person most have coins I NEED, which is very different from coins that I want...(yes no capital letter for want)

I have stopped, but I used to ask my partners the main reason for the registered mail, (Afraid of his coins not reaching him/her, or afraid of the coins will never depart his/her country?)

As for Japan its completely unnecessary to receive registered mail, and even more complicated for me as I have to be at home to sign the receipt, which is very inconvenient for me.

A couple of times I asked to send normal air mail and add $4 value of coins in the envelope at my own risk as I find unnecessary to spend $4 on coins that I wanted. And that's the main reason why I will only send registered for coins that I NEED!!! (This requests were rejected which made me think again about the two questions above..)

Honestly speaking, I don't mind waiting 1 month for coins... but until today, I don't see any difference in speed of registered mail or normal air mail. so its just a tracking function for a price.
JustforFun...
Below you find the tarifs for international mail out of the Netherlands. Prices are in Euro. If sent by registered mail, parcels are insured up to €50. For an additional €5.5 you can insure up to €500.

I find these tarifs quite high, and occassionally they refrain me from doing swaps. I prefer to keep postage less than 25-33% of the swap value, otherwise I don't swap as it is hardly economic.


("Aangetekend" = registered, "Verzekerd" = insured)
USA here.
Phill, you described it well, but what happened to me is even crazier. Listen this... I bought a set online and it was sent to me with a registered number. Well, when mail enter the area where you live, it first goes to something called "plant post office", and than from that place gets sent to other post offices which actually deliver mail to people.
When I checked my registered number, it said that the mail is in the plant. It stayed there forever. "Plant" is only for employees, you can't go there to pick it up or to talk to anyone. When I went to my post office they said, we didn't receive it from the stupid plant.
So my coins were not lost, because they were in the plant, but I couldn't get them. They gave me a phone number to call. I was on hold for over 2 hours, and than they picked up. I told them the problem and they transferred me somewhere else. I waited additional hour, but than I hanged up because I had to go to work.

Registered mail might make sence somewhere else, but here in USA is nothing but a waste of money. At least postmen are honest and don't steal your mail like in some other places ;)
I use registered mail, that it is quite costly in Italy, to be able to prove that I have really sent the coins. Otherwise, if my email does not arrive how can I show that I really sent the coins?
In the past, someone from Messico said she never received my coins, but I could prove that I sent and the Italian mail after quite a long time was able to give me a kind of document saying that mexican mail have consigned the envelop to her (also if I get only more or less 10 euros of compensation)
Moreover, in Italy mail is not so reliable, thus it may be easy to loose something, and I never send anything of a minimum value by normal mail
CirculableCoins
Quote: "PajaSkot"​USA here.
​Phill, you described it well, but what happened to me is even crazier. Listen this... I bought a set online and it was sent to me with a registered number. Well, when mail enter the area where you live, it first goes to something called "plant post office", and than from that place gets sent to other post offices which actually deliver mail to people.
​When I checked my registered number, it said that the mail is in the plant. It stayed there forever. "Plant" is only for employees, you can't go there to pick it up or to talk to anyone. When I went to my post office they said, we didn't receive it from the stupid plant.
​So my coins were not lost, because they were in the plant, but I couldn't get them. They gave me a phone number to call. I was on hold for over 2 hours, and than they picked up. I told them the problem and they transferred me somewhere else. I waited additional hour, but than I hanged up because I had to go to work.

​Registered mail might make sence somewhere else, but here in USA is nothing but a waste of money. At least postmen are honest and don't steal your mail like in some other places ;)
​Most problems in the US are due to incompetence rather than theft. As you've clearly experienced, the bigger the organization, the less responsive it is to it's customers. You're on hold for two hours and more because everyone there knows that if they pick up the phone they're going to have to do some work. They get paid the same either way and they can't be fired so why bother?

USPS have a monopoly on letter carrying so they don't need to be particularly good at it. They have just announced an operating loss for the 6th year in a row. How can you lose money when you are the only show in town?

It's time to break the USPS up into regional services or even better local ones under the control of a locally elected and accountable Postmaster. Keep the name, keep the great traditions but bring it back to a more human scale.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  

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