Dead letter mail
Encyclopedia
Dead letter mail or undeliverable mail is mail
that cannot be delivered to the addressee or returned to the sender. This is usually due to lack of compliance with postal regulations, an incomplete address and return address
, or the inability to forward the mail
when both correspondents move before the letter can be delivered. Largely based on the British model that emerged in the late eighteenth century, many countries developed similar systems for processing undeliverable mail.
The term 'dead mail' is perhaps a misnomer, and several jurisdictions have opted for the use of the term 'undeliverable mail' as more clearly representing the status of the item whose transmission has been impeded. Being internal departments within postal administrations, little information about the dead letter office
function has ever been made public. A few journal articles and at least one recently published book (Canadian) dealing with this topic have appeared.
Classification as a dead letter is one of the few instances where postal personnel are allowed to violate secrecy of correspondence
, ostensibly to search for clues as to the letter's origin or destination. Countries must also set up regulations for the disposal of dead letters, particularly when they contain items of value. Some very valuable items have turned up in undeliverable mail, including a stolen painting by Marc Chagall
which turned up in a United States Postal Service
sorting center in Topeka, Kansas
.
With increased collection and study of the postal marking
s originating from such offices, the body of literature on this obscure topic may grow. Many countries, including Canada
and the United States
, have issued special labels for envelopes that have travelled through the dead letter office. Genuinely used examples are highly prized by collectors, although mint labels, because they have no postage value, are often fairly common.
People interested in postal service
s throughout the world sometimes deliberately send mail to fictional addresses throughout the world to see if a particular nation's postal authority would return the mail to the sender. Collectors of postal markings also use this method in order to receive uncommon postal markings seldom seen in everyday mail.
Email
The Pine
e-mail client saves a message to a file named dead.letter if the user cancels the message before sending it.
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
that cannot be delivered to the addressee or returned to the sender. This is usually due to lack of compliance with postal regulations, an incomplete address and return address
Return address
In postal mail, a return address is an explicit inclusion of the address of the person sending the message. It provides the recipient with a means to determine how to respond to the sender of the message if needed....
, or the inability to forward the mail
Mail forwarding
Post offices and other mail service providers typically offer a mail forwarding service, commonly known as hybrid mail or virtual post office box services, to redirect mail destined for one location to another – usually for a given period of time. In the case of the United States Postal Service's...
when both correspondents move before the letter can be delivered. Largely based on the British model that emerged in the late eighteenth century, many countries developed similar systems for processing undeliverable mail.
The term 'dead mail' is perhaps a misnomer, and several jurisdictions have opted for the use of the term 'undeliverable mail' as more clearly representing the status of the item whose transmission has been impeded. Being internal departments within postal administrations, little information about the dead letter office
Dead letter office
The United States Postal Service started a dead letter office in 1825 to deal with undeliverable mail. In 2006 approximately 90 million undeliverable-as-addressed items ended up in this office; where the rightful owners cannot be identified, the correspondence is destroyed to protect customer...
function has ever been made public. A few journal articles and at least one recently published book (Canadian) dealing with this topic have appeared.
Classification as a dead letter is one of the few instances where postal personnel are allowed to violate secrecy of correspondence
Secrecy of correspondence
The secrecy of correspondence ) or literally translated as secrecy of letters, is a fundamental legal principle enshrined in the constitutions of several European countries. It guarantees that the content of sealed letters is never revealed and letters in transit are not opened by government...
, ostensibly to search for clues as to the letter's origin or destination. Countries must also set up regulations for the disposal of dead letters, particularly when they contain items of value. Some very valuable items have turned up in undeliverable mail, including a stolen painting by Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
which turned up in a United States Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
sorting center in Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...
.
With increased collection and study of the postal marking
Postal marking
A postal marking is any kind of annotation applied to a letter by a postal service. The most common types are postmarks and cancellations; almost every letter will have those. Less common types include forwarding addresses, routing annotations, warnings, postage due notices and explanations, such...
s originating from such offices, the body of literature on this obscure topic may grow. Many countries, including Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, have issued special labels for envelopes that have travelled through the dead letter office. Genuinely used examples are highly prized by collectors, although mint labels, because they have no postage value, are often fairly common.
People interested in postal service
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
s throughout the world sometimes deliberately send mail to fictional addresses throughout the world to see if a particular nation's postal authority would return the mail to the sender. Collectors of postal markings also use this method in order to receive uncommon postal markings seldom seen in everyday mail.
Pine (e-mail client)
Pine is a freeware, text-based email client developed at the University of Washington. The first version of this client was written in 1989. Source code was available for only the Unix version under a license written by the University of Washington...
e-mail client saves a message to a file named dead.letter if the user cancels the message before sending it.