You put postage on the letter, and the post office stamps the postage (to invalidate the postage). The stamp contains a date. You can't stamp something after having mailed it, that happens as part of the mail submission.
The term "stamp" in this context is used to refer to a system of payment using a proof-of-purchase (the stamp). Another example, a postage stamp is evidence that you have paid for the delivery of your letter. Some countries use stamps to pay for government services like deeds or passports.
You are confusing this with a ration system using stamps, which allows the purchase of a good, but does not actually pay for the goods.
There’s a machine called a postage machine which will print stamps on envelopes so you don’t need to run to buy stamps all the time. My dad had one at his law office that you could change the date to and the date printed on the stamp, and in doing so you could essentially post-date mail like it was mailed at an earlier date. If we ever missed deadlines or needed an extra day to work on a project it could have been an indispensable tool, but I bet that would count as some sort of mail fraud so of course we never did that…
I think we have something similar in France but I'm not sure. I remember that the one time I actually needed to send letters which I have pre-stamped, was when I was sending applications to universities. Fun thing happened though, as the postage has increased _the day after_ I've bought and stamped my envelopes. So then when coming to post office I needed to buy something like three 2cent stamps.
A postcard is not a letter; its contents are written in the open, right near to the postal address, and are fully visible to the postman. I imagine that's why the OP chose specifically a postcard for his example.
There's an interesting age bias there. My parents write letters, my generation much less so. I don't know if I currently have stamps. Our votes count the same though.
here’s few more:
- you never have to buy stamps. just put address where you want letter to be sent in the sender area of the envelope and address it to whomever and drop it in the mailbox without postage. post office will return mail without postage to sender which is exactly where you want letter to go
You put postage on the letter, and the post office stamps the postage (to invalidate the postage). The stamp contains a date. You can't stamp something after having mailed it, that happens as part of the mail submission.
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