Dead letter office
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The United States Postal Service started a dead letter office in 1825 to deal with undeliverable mail. Approximately 57 million items end up in this office every year, where enclosed items of value are removed and the correspondence is destroyed. When enclosed items are deemed to be of obviously exceptional value, efforts may be made to return them to the sender. Items of value that cannot be returned are sold at auction.
These facilities are now known as mail recovery centers (MRC). Other former names include dead letter branch and dead parcel branch.
External links
- "No return address (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues00/jul00/interest_jul00.html)" (Smithsonian magazine, July 2000)
- "Point of No Return (http://www.failuremag.com/arch_flop_mail_recovery_center.html): Saving Dead Letters at the Mail Recovery Center" (Failure magazine)
- USPS auction info (http://www.usps.gov/auctions/)
- USPS auctions on eBay (http://pages.ebay.com/promo/usps.html)