There seems to be great confusion as to the situation when coins have been posted using Royal Mail as the carrier and they get lost in transit.

There is also an urban myth that coins are excluded from compensation. Coins are not excluded, provided that they are not currently legal tender. To put it another way, if you can spend it, then it’s not covered. This means in practice, anything which is pre-decimal or has been de-classified, such as old style 50p pieces, half pennies, etc. are not excluded.

Sellers, on their listings, make statements like :-

‘I will post by Special Delivery, which will be covered by insurance up to £2500’
‘I will post by Recorded Delivery, but at your own risk’
‘Recorded mail has an insurance value of £32 BUT - in the small print it specifically excludes coins and precious metals’
‘Items sent ordinary post are at your own risk’, etc.

All of the above statements are either incorrect, or misleading. The real situation is as follows :-

Let me first define the maximum amounts of compensation that Royal Mail currently allows via the different means of posting :-

1) Normal Post (Ordinary Mail) – Provided a Certificate of Posting is obtained, (see below), up to 100 times the cost of a first class stamp, which is currently 34p. This is therefore currently £34. This multiplier never changes, so if first class postage goes up to 38p, then maximum compensation will become £38.
2) Recorded Delivery – Up to 100 times the cost of a first class stamp, as above.
3) Special Delivery (Guaranteed 9am) - £50, with the option to upgrade to £1000, or £2500.
4) Special Delivery (Next Day) - £500, with the option to upgrade to £1000, or £2500.

Ordinary Mail, i.e. posted with a first, or second class stamp – Items sent via this method are un-insured unless you get a Certificate of Posting from your Sub/Post Office at the time of posting. If it goes missing, then you can claim back up to the maximum allowed, currently £34. Like all other forms of compensated posting, you will get a form and it has to be stamped by the Post Office at the time of posting.

Recorded Delivery is effectively no different from Ordinary Mail sent with a Certificate of Posting and is governed by the same rules. The only real difference is that it is tracked end to end. This means that it is recorded by the Post Office that it has been sent, and a signature is required when it is delivered. There is a stamped form which provides a unique tracking number and can be used to determine if the item has been signed-for.

Both Ordinary Mail and Recorded Delivery items are usually delivered within one to three working days, subject to (un)usual postal delays. If items are not delivered within fifteen working days of posting, then the compensation process can begin. This will be evidenced either by the purchaser contacting you, or in the case of Recorded Delivery, the Royal Mail web site indicating non-delivery.

Special Delivery is guaranteed to be delivered next day, either before 9 am for an extra fee, or before 1 pm for the standard service.

It is worth noting here, that in the case of a signed-for delivery method, i.e. Recorded or Special Delivery, being delivered outside of the guaranteed delivery time, which is within fifteen days, or next day, respectively, you can claim compensation for the postage cost itself. For example, if you send something Special Delivery, which cost you £4.30 and it is delivered two working days later, then you can claim £4.30 back from Royal Mail, even though it has been delivered.

A couple of tips to save you money on postage costs :-

Send coins worth less than £34 using Ordinary Mail with a Certificate of Posting. This will cost you 34p (24p if you send it second class). There is more chance that coins sent this way will get lost in transit, as it is just ‘Ordinary Post’.

Send coins worth less than £34 using second class Recorded Delivery. This will save you 10p per item, but is still tracked. From experience, I have found that they arrive at the same time as first class Recorded.

When is it considered ‘lost’? – For items sent using Ordinary Post with a Certificate of Posting, Recorded, or Special Delivery, this is fifteen working days. You, as the vendor, will have to politely fend of purchasers until this deadline has expired as there is nothing you can do until Royal Mail considers it lost.

The Compensation Process – When you have determined that the item has not been delivered, i.e. after fifteen days from posting it, you can get a form from the Post Office, or from Royal Mail’s web site.

Either way, the completed form is posted of to Royal Mail’s tracking centre where it will be investigated – Send it second class Recorded Delivery just in case it too, gets lost in transit! They contact the expected recipient to verify non-delivery and if that is the case, then will eventually post you a cheque by way of compensation. This process is fairly quick, usually a couple of weeks.

In all cases of a purchaser saying that they have not received an item, check with the Royal Mail’s website. It may seem obvious, but sometimes they are delivered and someone other than the intended recipient has signed for it.

Don’t forget that as the vendor, you are responsible for ensuring that goods get to your customer, as per the distance selling regulations. If a customer refuses to pay for Special Delivery for an item over £34, only pays for Recorded Delivery and it goes missing, then you are responsible. You will have to fully compensate the customer and you can only claim a maximum of £34 from Royal Mail, and ‘Items sent ordinary post are at your own risk’ - Wrong. You have the responsibility to prove that you have posted it – Be warned.

Regards,
Rnewfie (watfordcoins.co.uk)