1) Top left - sent from Cannock post office, received two days later. Oddly I sent it on a saturday and so effectively it took just one day to reach me despite being second class. Perhaps putting stamps in the bottom left is a secret code for the Royal Mail to deliver mail faster? Or perhaps it was due to the relative proximity of the post office to my house?

 

2) Bottom left - sent from Tesco which is even closer to my house than the post office, again it took two days (though this didn't include a Sunday). Of the three corners I had assumed this one had the greatest chance of failure due to it being, by distance, the furthest from 'convention'.

 

3) Bottom right - sent from my work in Telford. This is about twenty miles away and so required a little more effort from the postal service than the previous two. Would they put up with my childish shenanigans or punish me for my errant stamp placement? I received the empty brown envelope three days later. So my corner experiment had failed and Royal Mail had won. . . . . for now.

 

Next I thought it wise to complete the front of the envelope set with an aesthetically pleasingly placed stamp right in the middle of the address.

 

4) Middle - sent from Wolverhampton, received three days later. As you can tell, I am varying my postal points with the intention of making the distances further each time (though Wolverhampton is closer to Cannock thn Telford)

 

Having been bested by the Royal Mail thus far I decided to kick it up a notch and test a dangerous rumour I had heard, it goes thusly 'If you put a stamp upside down, you can be hung for treason'. Now, I have asked at least three post office workers whether this is true and had the same response each time - complete bafflement and a sense that they were in the presence of a lunatic. So, none agreed, but worryingly none denied it. I think the rumour comes about as it is seen as defacing the Queens image which at one time was worse than rape or murder in England, I hoped this was still not the case.

 

5) Upside down - sent from Weymouth. I sent the letter from Weymouth in the hope that it could not be traced to me, obviously the letter had my address on it but I could deny having posted it (until someone told the police I had recently been to Weymouth of course).

 

Upon returning from Weymouth I was sent to Leeds with work and so decided to abandon the front of the envelope and put the stamp in the last place anyone would look . . well actually the second place, the back.

 

6) The back - sent from Leeds. Surprisingly this arrived just two days later, impressive for a second class letter from over 100 miles away.

 

Two days after that envelope arrived, so did the possible hanging envelope which had taken a full 7 tense days to arrive. So the Royal Mail had delivered all 6 of my improper enevlopes, but I would not be beaten with number 7, for I was travelling to London and had a cunning plan to basically throw away a stamp. I would cunningly put the stamp inside the envelope. Obviously this would have absolutely no chance of being delivered so I had to give the postal service a chance, so I scrawled a note where the stamp should be stating '2nd class stamp inside, please take'.

 

7 - Inside - sent from London. Two days later I received the envelope. Now knowing the postal service as I do, I had actually anticipated it's delivery, but with the stipulation that I pay the fee plus £1 which happens surprisingly often where I work as people don't put enough postage on. However, to my astonishment the letter was delivered to me for free (obviously I incurred charges in sending it). Even more amazing was that the envelope was unopened and the stamp was inside.

 

Had I stumbled upon a money saving technique? Send letters with the promise of a stamp, but actually produce no stamp as the workers are too trusting to open the mail! Unfortunately I don't really want to risk sending anything of importance using this method so I'll never know. It was at this point that I had to put the experiment on hold as I ran out of stamps as I actually had important mail to send, but I'll re-start at some point.

 

8) Draw a stamp - unfortunately I lack any artistic skills and so will require assistance.

 

9) Send a stamp - you can get relatively large stamps at the post office, what I will do is attach some kind of card to it and write the address on the back in the hope that the stamp itself is delivered.

 

I will also look at sending a letter to Royal Mail asking what the difference between the first and second class service is, do workers deliberately hold back second class mail?