Understanding the Rates for Foreign Mail

Question: It is my understanding that the first-class postage required to mail a half-ounce letter from the United States to any European country is 44 cents--and only 22 cents to mail the same size letter to Mexico. Why the difference?

The European countries must get the extra 22 cents. What about Mexico? Does the Mexican postal system get anything at all for handling a letter from the United States? The people at the Los Angeles main post office say they do not know the reason for the differences.--D.W.T.

Answer: First of all, the people at the Los Angeles post office can’t be blamed for not knowing all of the reasoning behind international postal rates.

The first-class letter rate is 22 cents for the first ounce for any letter mailed from the United States to any place in the United States, Canada or Mexico. Canada and Mexico are our neighbors, and the postal rate is low compared to overseas rates because an old postal theory is that postage paid should increase with distance to the receiver.

The first-class airmail rate to Europe is 44 cents per half ounce. As a general rule, no country gets money from other countries for postal matters. Each country collects its own postage from the sale of stamps, and each country agrees to carry any incoming international mail free of charge.

There is no airmail rate for items mailed within the United States or from the United States to Mexico or Canada. This rate was eliminated a few years ago because all long-distance mail in the first-class category goes by air anyway.

Mail contracts for transporting mail to Europe are more expensive than for local or U.S.-to-Mexico routes, so this is another reason for the higher rate to Europe.

Q: How powerful should my magnifying glass be for examining stamps?--R.A.

A: About four or six power; that is, four to six times natural size. A weaker magnifier wouldn’t show the small details, and a more powerful one (say, a 10-power jeweler’s loupe) would make the stamp so big that you couldn’t see enough of the stamp to evaluate the cancel or paper condition or whatever you want to see magnified.

Stamp News

Public Hospitals 22-cent commemorative stamp (illustrated on Page 16) will be issued in panes of 50 on April 11 to honor hospitals in the United States. First-day sale at New York, N.Y. 10001.