International Reply Coupons IRC's

Most Hams will have come across the IRC, especially if they are interested in exchanging QSL cards. IRC's have been around for many years now and are used to "buy" postage stamps. Perhaps many of you might not know that the newer designs have a finite shelf life and you may be holding IRC's which are already useless or will be useless in a very short time.

When one writes to a stranger and requests a reply, it is considered polite to enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. This works well when both persons live in the same country; however, if they are from different countries, the enclosed postage stamp will not be valid.   This technical problem was solved in 1906 when the Universal Postal Union, during its Congress in Rome, introduced the International Reply Coupon service. As the service began before the days of airmail, the earliest coupons could only be redeemed for a single-rate ordinary postage stamp to a foreign country. In terms of today's UPU Convention, International reply coupons (IRC) are exchangeable in all member countries for the minimum postage of a priority item or an unregistered airmail letter sent to a foreign country.   The UPU's International Bureau processes several million coupons each year and deals with all accounting aspects. The International Bureau does not sell IRCs directly to customers; they must buy them from their local Post Office. Although Post Offices are not obliged to sell IRCs, it is mandatory for Post Offices of the UPU member countries to exchange the coupons. If a Post does not sell IRCs, it is possible to purchase them in a post office located in a neighboring country.

In the past, IRC's did not have an expiry date and were valid as long as the issuing Post Office had stamped the IRC. The design shown here is known as the C22 design and was superseded in the year 2000 by the CN01 design. If you still have any stocks of the C22 then you can use them as wallpaper but they are no longer valid for postage stamp exchange at the Post Office. You can keep them in your stamp collection as a curiosity or relic of bygone days.

This new CN01 IRC was valid from 2000 until November 2006 but can still be exchanged for stamps until the end of December 2006. It has now been superseded by a new CN01 design which is valid from November 2006 until November 2009.

You still have until the end of December 2006 to exchange this style of IRC for postage stamps. After the end of December 2006 they will have expired and will no longer be accepted by the Post Offices all over the world. Of course, here in DU land, they are already worthless as it is unlikely that you could send with a QSL card to a foreign QSO partner in time for them to exchange the IRC for return stamps because of the Christmas mail rush.

Shown here is the new CN01 IRC which was made available in July 2006 and is valid for postage stamp exchange until December 2009. These are the only ones you should accept now.

The Universal Postal Union now has 190 members with the inclusion of Montenegro in July 2006.

Member Countries and Non-Member Countries of the Universal Postal Union