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Talk:Dead letter office

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What about dead letter offices in other countries? These should be mentioned and discussed. --Daniel C. Boyer 18:43 20 Jul 2003 (UTC)

This article is very US centric. Almost as if the USA is the only country to use such a service. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 58.166.3.111 (talk • contribs) 06:45, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

In Australia, "dead letters" are any undeliverable items that have no return address on the outside of the envelope. In each delivery centre, one or two postal workers are authorised to open such letters and discern their origin. If a sender can be identified the letter will be returned, regardless of value. If not, the material is destroyed. Any property of value is stored and sold from time to time. It is illegal to send money in the Post in the US. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.59.11.215 (talk) 08:19, 25 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

In the UK there is the 'National Returned Letter Centre', see here. Gaz (talk?) 22:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The USPS article states:

or is sent to one of three Mail Recovery Centers in the United States (formerly known as Dead Letter Offices, originated by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s) where it receives more intense scrutiny, including being opened to determine if any of the contents are a clue. If no valid address can be determined, the items are held for 90 days in case of inquiry by the customer; and if they are not claimed then they are destroyed.

I would assume this is the most likely case. However this article seems to suggest mail sent here is automatically auctioned and not even kept for 90 days. But it seems more likely mail sent here, regardless of value is opened and attempts made to identify the owner or intended receivee from the content. Obviously if it's just a letter say or something of little value, it would be difficult to identify unless there is something obvious and little further attempt I suspect is made beyond the 90 days but it still might be possible. I would assume nowdays it's even more difficult to identify mail from the content then before. Given that urbanisation of modern life, even if the letter mentions it's destination and a few names, there would still be little hope in most cases. However I would guess that in the past, if the letter identified the location, it could easily have been a small rural location e.g. with a few thousand people. With a few names, it would probably be possibly to identify the intended receivee or at least likely candidates... Nil Einne 19:45, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]