Ceremony of the Keys - Tower of London

Pam - In looking on the USPS website I found the following. As of January 27, 2013, the U.S. Postal Service no longer sells international reply coupons. However, coupons previously sold by the U.S. Postal Service can still be used or exchanged (see 381.2).

Thanks. I am not sure how to order them now.

I went to the main post office in Kansas City and they knew what they were but not how to deal with them. It took about 25 minutes and calls to 3 other post offices. If I had it to do again, I would have ordered them online and paid a small amount and had them mailed to me so I didn't have the hassle. Now that I am looking into it, I saw this notice on a non-usps website "Effective January 27, 2013, the U.S. Postal Service® will stop selling International Reply Coupons. However, the Postal Service™ will continue to redeem them." I also have not been able to find them on the usps website. This might pose a problem. I looked on ebay and searched for UK stamps, but all I could find were collectable stamps. And the Royal Mail website sure doesn't make it easy to just find some stamps.

I did find this email for royal mail that you might be able to email to ask how you can get stamps. philatelic.enquiries@royalmail.com

Contact them via the Tower of London Ceremony of the Keys site. They are aware of the IRC coupon situation and will offer an alternative solution, at least according to some posters on Trip Advisor. They are also switching to online ticketing sometime this year. I think others have bought the coupons from Canada Post as well.

If you have a hotel booked, contact then and see if they will have the tickets sent to them. This ceremony is SO fabulous; I'm a huge British history buff so I've been three times.

I travel to the UK often and have viewed this Ceremony about 8-10 times, so I bought my IRC in bunches............so Pam please message me your address and i will pop one in the mail for you. No payment needed, its only $2. Enjoy my homeland !!

The UK post office has also stopped selling IRCs - the claim was that the average number sold was fewer than 1 per annum per PO.

I just got my tickets for a night in July, and I had this same problem. I ended up using the Royal Mail website and printed an envelope from my home computer with British postage. Worked fine, but I paid a little more than necessary since I had to open an account with a minimum of 5 pounds. I got my tickets within a few days, though, so it was pretty smooth.

If you go ahead and follow the instructions with your letter request and enclose a self addressed envelope, they will put postage and mail it to you. I emailed them 2 weeks ago, they told me this, I immediately sent my letter request and I received my tickets yesterday in the mail.

Let me see if I understand. International Reply Coupons are hard if not impossible to get here in the states. So you send the appropriate wording and enclose one or two self addressed British stamped envelopes? How much British stamps and where do you get them? Tom