[Dx-qsl] IRC Info

Wed Jun 28 11:12:09 EDT 2006

Ron ..I'm missing the paragraph about the old small IRC's. My postal
company gave me this sub article from UPU :

Prot Article RL XX

International reply coupons issued before 1 January 2002

1 International reply coupons of the earlier type issued before 1
January 2002 and exchanged up to 30 June 2006 shall be settled direct
between the administrations concerned in accordance with the provisions
indicated hereinafter. They may no longer be the subject of the General
liquidation account of international reply coupons prepared by the
International Bureau.

2 In the absence of a special agreement, after this transitional period,
international reply coupons of the earlier type shall no longer give
rise to a settlement between administrations.

This means the old small IRC's will expire at the end of THIS month.

My local postoffice told me the same yesterday when I exchanged some old
ones.

Dennis PA7FM

-------Oorspronkelijk bericht-------

Van: Ron
Datum: 06/27/06 17:25:41
Aan: dx-qsl-mailman.qth.net
Onderwerp: [Dx-qsl] IRC Info

Here is the info straight from UPU

Subject:
RE: New IRC
From:
"BI.Info" <Info at upu.int>
Date:
2006年6月27日 08:55:41 +0200

To:
"Ron" <ac7dx at clearwire.net>

Here is an article that will be published in one week time about the new IRC
and that will reply to your questions:

Turning 100 with a new look

The international reply coupon (IRC) is getting a makeover. Two fingers
about to touch, framed in a postage stamp - this image inspired by the
famous Michelangelo work adorning the Sistine Chapel ceiling symbolizes the
notions of com-munication and exchange that the international reply coupon
represents. This image appears on the postal product which will celebrate
its cen-tenary next year.

In a competition organized by the UPU Interna-tional Bureau to find a design
for the new IRC, the work submitted by Ukraine was selected from among those
of 15 other participating Posts. The 40 member countries of the Postal
Operations Council made their choice during an official vote taken on 6
April.

The artist who submitted the winning entry,

Volodymyr Taran, is a graduate of the Kiev Poly-technic Institute. A graphic
artist by profession,

Taran has illustrated numerous children's books and has helped design film
strips. He also paints and designs interiors and furniture. His recent
il-lustrations for coins earned him two consecutive prizes from the
International Coin Design Com-petition held in Japan. In response to the
compe-tition's theme "the postage stamp - a vehicle for communication", the
Ukrainian artist found his inspiration in the work of Michelangelo.

The new reply coupon, called Beijing model No. 2, will be sold commercially
in more than 70 countries from 1 July 2006, and will be ex-changeable up to
31 December 2009 in all Un-ion member countries.

A little history

According to the latest figures, 2.2 million of these postal instruments,
exchangeable for one or more postage stamps, are sold every year worldwide.
But where did the coupon originate?

As far back as the end of the 19th century, a recurrent question was how to
prepay postage in order to ensure a correspondent's reply. Postal stationery
accompanied by a paid reply was one solution, but it was valid only for the
domestic service and limited to a few lines of correspon-dence on the
envelope or card. An international solution was needed whereby a reply
coupon could be exchanged for a postage stamp in the post office of a
foreign country.

And so it was decided by the 1906 Rome Congress to create the IRC,
exchangeable at the time for postage stamps to the value of 25 gold centimes
in member countries that had signed the relevant agreement.

Over the years, successive Congresses de-bated at length such issues as
coupon's period of validity and minimum selling price, as well as the
concept of exchanging postage stamps, but it was not until 1974 that
countries agreed on the coupon as a standard postal instrument, the wording
of the text printed on it and the coupon's value set at one gold franc. In
1994, its ex-change value was set in special drawing rights, an
international monetary instrument based on a basket of currencies.
Nevertheless, each country determines its own selling price based on the
postage for an ordinary 20-gramme airmail letter sent abroad.

Changes in 1999

The actual coupon and its watermark have also changed. The fine white
watermarked hemp fi-ber has been replaced by a traditional, more ro-bust
paper that can be mechanically processed. The watermark was originally made
with a dandy roll, then later printed using a plate process. The hemisphere
and pigeon symbols, designed by Grasset for the first illustration, were
used until the adoption of the Beijing model No. 1 in 1999. Since then, the
IRC has undergone an even greater makeover, including a different colour to
distinguish it from the old series, a larger size (148 x 103 mm), a UPU
hologram for greater security and a new slogan: "La lettre, une voie vers l
alphabétisation" (The letter - a path to lit-eracy). Also printed on the
coupon are the name of the country of origin and a UPU standard bar-code
containing the ISO country code, the date of printing and the selling price
set by the Inter-national Bureau. This model will be sold until 31 August
2006, with the deadline for exchange set at 31 December 2006.

Soon to be 100

The IRC will celebrate its centenary in 2007. It was on 1 October 1907 that
the International Bu-reau issued the first international reply coupon. To
mark this event, countries can ask the Inter-national Bureau to include a
special overprint that reads "1907-2007: 100 years of IRCs"! Col-lectors,
philatelists and future buyers will appre-ciate this added feature. The
coupon is certain to be a popular collector's item at post offices next year

Regards

J. Deutschmann

www.upu.int

This should answer all questions regarding IRC's
73
Ron

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