Postage Without Second-Ounce Stamps

Copyright (c) 2008 by David Wincelberg

The postage rate for mailing a regular first-class letter in the United States starting May 12, 2008 is $0.42 for the first ounce and $0.17 for additional ounces up to 3.5 ounces. After that, you must use the rate for large envelopes, called flats, which start at $0.83 and also add $0.17 for additional ounces. Suppose that you only have 42-cent stamps. What should you do? You could affix one stamp for each ounce. However, two first-ounce stamps covers three ounces. The following table shows the cost for up to 13 ounces, the value when only first-ounce stamps are applied and how many ounces are covered by using only these stamps.

Ounces Cost One-Ounce Stamps Covers
1 0.42 0.42 1
2 0.59 0.84 3
3 0.76 1.26 3.5
3.5 0.93  
4 1.34 1.68 6
5 1.51 2.10 8
6 1.68 2.52 10
7 1.85 2.94 13
8 2.02  
9 2.19
10 2.36
11 2.53
12 2.70
13 2.87

Following are the size requirements on letters. If any of the maximum dimension are exceeded, then the rates for large envelopes (flats) apply.

Dimension Minimum (inches) Maximum (inches)
Length 5 11.5
Width 3.5 6.125
Thickness 0.007 0.25



David Wincelberg
FileJockey Software
287 S. Robertson Blvd. PMB 373
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

File Jockey at Compu Serve dot com
(In the above line, change "at" and "dot" to their symbols and remove the spaces to produce my e-mail address.)

Donations to support my projects would be appreciated.

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Last updated: 15-Aug-2008
Page address: http://www.FileJockeySoftware.com/services/Stamps/Stamps.html