Anytime my mother used to run out of stamps and needed to send a letter she would put two quarters on the envelope. To my knowledge she never had any issues with her mail getting delivered. Has anyone tried this? What about in other countries?
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As long as you include enough for the required postage I would think most mail carriers would be happy to oblige this.
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Never heard this thing, might be postman helpful and buying stamps with Money and sticking them on mail)
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This is likely to be a tremendous temptation to many postmen these days, to just, dishonestly take the money. I can’t see it working. Or only very rarely.
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This wold not work in Germany. But here you can get QR-Codes to print yourself and you can use an App to get codes to write on the letter as postage.
https://www.deutschepost.de/de/i/internetmarke-porto-drucken/lp.html
https://www.deutschepost.de/de/m/mobile-briefmarke.html
As far as I know these QR Code are availkable in the US too.
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When post office and postal service were still relevant here (before digital era of phones and computers use), it was possible to do it
My mother used to clip money to her envelopes on the outside, and put them inside mailbox. It worked, and it really helped when someone lived in rural area and they didn’t have stamps
Today mailboxes have gone 
, they only exist in front of certain old post office. So people will just go to post office and buy stamps
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why are you so certain it won’t work in Germany? I must admit I never tryed it. Maybe should just give it a go what shall happen? 
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Better don’t try it as the coins could easily get stuck in the sorting machines and damage them (which would be quite costly when they find out who caused it to happen)…
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I think this more of US specific topic?
I’ve read before elsewhere on the forum, postcrossers in rural communities when they have run-out of stamps have simply left appropriate money with their outgoing mail left inside their own mailbox for the postal worker to pick up.
I assume the postie will use the collected monies to affix postage or other means of ‘postage paid’ when getting back to the Mail Centre.
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The QR Codes sound really cool! They would probably work better too!
Mailman here. We get a budget for 10 stamps when someone needs a stamp on round. yes, postmen are trustworthy like that!!
But all depends on your postman, some don’t care and don’t carry any with them.
Sticking money to an envelope is not a good idea and sending money is in fact illegal in Belgium.
Personally, i would be impressed by the effort and put on a stamp 
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The mail sorting process is highly automated. When collected from the letterbox, the mail falls through a trapdoor directly into a mailbag. The mail bag is emptied directly into the sorting machine. It is very likely that the first person to pick up the mail is the postman at the destination. Stuck-on money can very easily get lost in the machines.
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Yes, I grew up on a farm in Iowa…we kept an old tea cup with coins in the box at the end of our lane. The rural mail carrier would collect as needed
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I remember my mother putting coins on envelopes when I was a child but that was many years ago.
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Mailman again, i empty mailboxes by hand daily. The rest is completely automated. Depending on how you stick it to the envelope it would probably survive.
The machines are very good at detecting and sorting abnormalities and these are processed by hand.
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Thanks everyone for replying 
I’m learning a lot about how mail works in different countries!
Also it’s good hear that this is a thing in some places and mom isn’t just pulling my leg.
Never heard of this, and I’m pretty sure it will not work in Italy. It is also forbidden to send money if I remember well.
At best, someone (from a postal worker to the final mailmen) will take the money, the automated sorting machine will not notice there is no stamp and the postcard / envelope will be delivered anyway
More likely, the person who steal the money would destroy the card by doing that, or it will be stuck in the sorting machine, and it will get lost.
To me this feels like a part of old, simpler world. I love the story.
I don’t think it would work these days at least in my country, but I can see it was a good system for countryside in the old days.
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