What do you think of the security matrix on stamps?

I think they are distracting. They could be printed in invisible ink but I suppose that isn’t very cost-effective.

Might be usefull in a technical sense but aesthetically…Disavow!

Apropos of this discussion, this article came out a few days ago:

I really hope it won’t come to stamps being “just a barcode”… that would be a sad ending to a lovely art form and almost 200 years of philatelic history.

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It would be interesting to see a poll about this topic. I have the feeling most people don’t like them. I think Postcrossing is liaising with Deutsche Post for the upcoming launch of the German Postcrossing stamp. This could be a good opportunity to let them know what people think about their matrix stamps.

I just received my first one from France. It is not particularly lovely. To me it looks like a reproduction of a stamp printed next to the matrix pattern. I would be more interested in the matrix if there were more benefit to the postal customer, but it seems to be mainly an anti-counterfeit device.

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Got one today, it’s ok…Queen stamp is a bit dull

I think I share similar sentiments to others who have already posted.
I don’t necessarily hate them, but they are a bit of an eyesore. I don’t like that they are making the stamps larger since I often combine different stamps with different values onto cards (especially if someone says nicely in their profile that they collect stamps :slight_smile:) and then my space is limited. The barcode also staying black also ruins any sort of colour scheme; it looks a lot nicer for the eyes when the barcode matches the general colour scheme of the stamp overall (like in the UK examples above).

But, I also understand why they are being used and I can imagine that the designs/sizing of the barcodes could be enhanced after a bit of time.

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That was actually my first thought: many countries (the US and UK included) use phosphorescent tagging on their stamps already, primarily (I believe) as a means of automatically sorting the mail in the proper orientation for machine cancelling. Would it be possible to put the QR-like codes in phosphorescent or UV ink?

(Note: as I have no reason to believe I’m more on-the-ball than the entire global postal establishment, I assume that there’s a very good reason not to do this, and that I’m just unaware of it.)

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I don’t like them because they make the stamps huge. I have lots of low denomination stamps I like to use with one first class stamp so I often have 4 stamps on a card and these monster stamps are taking up writing room :grin:

I really do not like them.
It really detracts from the stamp for me. I would find them much less desirable to collect. They also take up more space on the card. While I keep all my stamps on my postcards I think I would end up not collecting stamps or postcards if every country went this way.

Its extremely sad to think that stamps may one day be just a bar code. I won’t be sending post if that happens in my lifetime… :frowning:

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They’re quite new here in Germany, and I think they are horrible. Imho they destroy the whole layout of the stamp. And why? Because you can track those stamps - but not even up to the end of the chain, to the recipient. All you get is some notice that the stamp was registered in some postal distribution hub.
Totally useless.

as far as I understood, German Post uses it to digitally cancel the stamps. So they can’t be reused, even if there’s no cancellation mark on them. Us being able to “track” them is just a side effect, where they enable to display data, that they collect anyway.
But it makes them look ugly and increases the sizes significantly, especially if you need to combine multiple values, which is crucial on postcards…

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Yeah, even a 5ct stamp is such a big monster and it would only bei used to extend older stamps If needed. So I am buying stamps without matrix code at the online shop.