Order of the Bath

This is a picture of a sinkhole that appeared in Guatemala City last week. It is about 18m across and up to 100m deep. It gives me vertigo just looking at the picture. Apparently there was a three story clothing factory on the far side which just vanished but there are no reports of any casualties as everyone had gone home due to the storm. It is not the first time; the second picture is of a smaller one that appeared in a shanty district of the same city in 2007 and killed three people.

This has been in the news a lot recently. Foxconn is a major manufacturing organisation in China which makes a lot of hi-tech consumer products for the west such as iPhones for Apple and stuff for Dell, Intel and HP. Sad though it is, let us get it into perspective. There have been 11 reported cases to date including two that were unsuccessful. Foxconn employs around 500,000 people, 300,000 at that plant. The suicide rate for China is around 14 per 100,000 population per year (although the figures are not very recent) and it is by no means the highest in the world. So on that basis there is no story.

So what is fuelling the stories; well there is nothing like a sensational headline to get readers and there is the Apple angle; and it may have been triggered by one case last year where the circumstances were a little suspicious, though never proven. Yes, western companies need to carefully monitor working conditions when off-shoring contracts but stories like this don’t help.

Who said “Don’t worry your pretty little head about…”? I have heard it a few times recently and can’t find a good source for it anywhere. The best I have come across is “The Little Colonel“, a 1935 film but I can’t believe that it is the root, I have never heard of the film before. There is a similar phrase “What could have put such an idea into your pretty little head?” in “The importance of being Ernest” (Oscar Wilde). Perhaps it all came from that but someone must have first uttered one of the most condescending phrases in the language.

After a story that you can’t buy an iPad with cash in Apple shops, I looked up the rules as I thought that cash in reasonable denominations had to be accepted. It seems that I was wrong.

The Legal Tender rules (in the UK) apply only to the payment of debts and even then there are rules.

• Strictly it only applies to debts paid into court.
• No change can be demanded so the exact sum (or over) is required.
• Bronze coins are only valid up to a total of 20p.
• 5p and 10p coins are only valid up to a total of £5.
• 20p, 50p (and 25p) coins are only valid up to a total of £10.
• £1, £2 (and £5) coins are valid to any sum.
• In England and Wales, Bank of England notes are valid to any sum. The notes of Scotland and Northern Ireland are not.
• In Scotland and Northern Ireland, Bank of England notes are not legal tender, but neither are their respective own currency notes because they are issued by private banks and are therefore only promissory.

In practice there is agreement by UK banks to accept all the national notes, but shops do not have to. Bank of England notes are generally accepted across the UK and also in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Overseas Territories.

So, you can’t insist on paying for anything in cash and the transaction is by mutual agreement. However you can clear a debt using cash so long as the rules are adhered to—technically , unless by prior agreement, even a restaurant bill is a debt so can be settled in this way, but be prepared to carry a large bucket of coins if you are in Scotland.

I find myself sending parcels (strictly packets) fairly often and those receiving them like to have real stamps. They hate the white printed labels you get from the post office if you just pass the item across the counter. So how do you do it.

First you need to know the rules about size, weight and content, and they are quite complex. From that you can work out the cost. Then you have to obtain stamps to the right value and that is the subject of this note.

Stamps exist in a variety of forms; there are definitives which are the small stamps with just the queen’s head. There are commemoratives, special issues in limited values and generally prettier. Both can be in gummed or self-adhesive varieties. Both can come in sheets or booklets. My correspondents like to get any and all of these.

The really difficult part comes when making up the required value. There are the basic range of stamps which are always available (though some offices have limited stock), called “make-up values.” These allow you to make any total relatively easily. They are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p & £1 and they are all simple head definitives. The common inland postal rates are served by No value Indicated (NVI) stamps—these retain their function even if the postal rate changes and currently cost 32p (2nd), 41p (1st), 51p (Large 2nd) and 66p (Large 1st). A 9p make-up value exists to change a 2nd into a 1st.

Then there are the special values for other purposes. Currently these are 60p (Europe 20g), 67p (World 10g), 88p (Europe 40g), 97p (World 20g) & £1.46 (World 40g). They exist as definitives but are also commonly issued as commemoratives together with NVI 1sts. As was noted yesterday, 67p, 88p and £1.46 also exist as NVI stamps in booklets. 2nd class commemoratives are only issued at Christmas time. Some values are issued in a form called Regionals with different designs for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are also four other values—£1.50, £2, £3 & £5—but you won’t find these available for sale at post offices, only by mail order and, except to collectors, only in sheets of 100. That strikes me as ridiculous and rather pointless.

The challenge remains to make up the required packet postal rates with the stamps available, including unusual ones wherever possible. I have noticed, for instance, that £2.24 (1st packet 500g) can be made with 60p+67p+97p which happens to be the values of the special stamps being issued today (Britain Alone, another WWII nostalgia series). Add a Large 2nd and you get £2.75 (1st packet £750g). These are the two values I need most often and it looks like the postal rates have been deliberately designed to allow this, but probably not—just try making £1.72. The counter staff used to be very quick at this but now they just use labels.

Here is a list of the most common postal rates required (apart from the simple ones) if you want to try your hand at making up the sets. Of course it is easy with the make-up values but the challenge is to do only with the NVI and the commemoratives. I think all but two are possible.

81p, 96p, £1.11, £1.14, £1.17, £1.31, £1.32, £1.39, £1.42, £1.51, £1.57, £1.59, £1.70, £1.72, £1.82, £1.87, £1.95, £1.98, £2.10, £2.36, £2.38, & £2.65.

This is a Royal Mail dirty secret.

When foreign visitors come they may well want to send postcards home; I presume it is a tradition in other countries as it is for us. In tourist locations they could be offered stamps to go with them. Royal Mail allows franchise sales of stamp booklets from news-agents etc. The product that they will have available is booklets of four “Postcard” stamps described as “Worldwide postcard rate.” They are apparently Grey, Blue and Red but I have never seen one—you don’t if you live here. The price of this booklet is £2.68 i.e. 4 x 67p stamps. This is correct if you are visiting from America, India or New Zealand but not if you are from Europe, which must be the majority, they only require 60p stamps. I bet the retailers are either not aware or conveniently forget that.

Mind you, it is not as bad as Spain where once we asked for stamps for postcards and were given some; And for America? Just use two.

There is a similar thing going on with Europe Letter stamps (4 x 88p) which is the second weight, 40g and Worldwide Letter (4 x £1.46) which is the third weight, also 40g but I suspect is less of a problem because the booklets are harder to obtain and most people would go to a post office which, I trust, will advise correctly.