Ryan Greenberg

A few people have been sending me snail mail letters here in Bolivia. For the record, intra-America snail mail is nothing compared with inter-American snail mail. A letter takes anywhere from 11 to 18 days to arrive. But I digress.

As I was looking at a recent letter, I noticed something different about the postmark. after checking a few other letters and those sent to friend here, I have come to the stunning conclusion that the U.S. Postal Service is changing its postmarks! The familiar postmarks of old had wavy lines across the postage and a circular stamp with the date sent, city, and zip code. The new postmarks have the same wavy line, albeit lighter, but the date, city, and zip code are printed on the envelop by a computer.

Old postmark

New postmark

Personally, I think the old postmarks are more aesthetically pleasing. Emily agreed with me, though one brother here said that he thinks the new mark is easier to read. Ultimately, my conclusion was, “They’re postmarks—who cares?”

Who would have guessed that, despite being 3000 miles away, I would have my finger on the pulse of such important changes in the U.S.?