International Reply Coupons (IRC's) used contemporarily for postage

 Hi.

 

International Reply Coupons, or IRC's, are a Universal Postal Union scheme of printing coupons which can be used to aquire a stamp worth the current airmail rate in the country they were redeemed in. The UK stopped issuing these in 2011, and while technically it is still bound by treaty to continue accepting them, none of the multiple Port Offices I tried had any idea about what they were looking at. Many countries still issue them, but it can be hard to find one for sale.. 

 

When I tried getting them in Poland, the first time I asked, the postal clerk said she hadn't heard of them in years. After my insistence, she told me to come back on the next monday, by when she would have spoken to someone with more experience, basically "corporate". When I came back, I was asked how much I need and what "type"; I wasn't aware there is multiple, but I just asked for the international one. She then ordered them, and they were available within the week for 10zł (Around 2£) each.

 

I have 2 covers, one using a Polish IRC to send from the UK to Poland, and one using a South Korean IRC I got from eBay to send from Poland to the UK. This isn't quite the intended use of these, but with the UK I really couldn't thing of any other way to use it, and from Poland it seemed more interesting than just getting an airmail stamp. In both cases, I wrote the unique code for the respective coupons which is usually seen with a barcode on the reverse, but of course covered on both. 

 

UK-Poland, Royal Mail BHF machine postmark 
 

 
Poland-UK; Polish circular postmark placed correctly on right

 

 

 

 

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