OT: Postage stamp validity?

Pete Biggs said:

"Selotape covered the stamps, rendering them invalid, as the postmark
could not reach the stamps", said the bloke in the sorting office, the
recipient of a parcel I sent has told me. He claims to have been charged
for the full postage + £1 handling.

Is the Royal Mail entitled to do this? Was I in the wrong for taping the
stamps? (Ironically to prevent them falling off and a charge being
incurred).

Thanks
~PB

Yes, I think Royal Mail probably is entitled to do this. The ink they use
to obliterate stamps won't adhere to Sellotape and they'd be afraid of
someone removing the stamps and sticking them on something else. I can't
see why they couldn't have obliterated them in some other way, though.

They're probably interpreting the Successor Postal Services Company Inland
Letter Post Scheme 2001 which says in para. 10.4 that "a postage stamp ...
may not be used ... if it is damaged or imperfect, or if it has been
defaced, or if it has anything written or printed over it."
--
Michael MacClancy

Pete Biggs said:

"Selotape covered the stamps, rendering them invalid, as the postmark
could not reach the stamps", said the bloke in the sorting office, the
recipient of a parcel I sent has told me. He claims to have been charged
for the full postage + £1 handling.

Is the Royal Mail entitled to do this? Was I in the wrong for taping the
stamps? (Ironically to prevent them falling off and a charge being
incurred).

Yes. There was a scam running a few years ago (probably still is in
some places) where high value stamps were coated with gum on the face
side so that the cancelling ink could be washed off.

If you want to secure the stamps to stop them falling off stick them
to a piece of paper and tape that on or use two bits of tape making
sure you leave a decent amount of the stamp's face exposed.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"