I Recently Sent A Coin...

I have ordered coins from Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Latvia, U.K., Spain, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. Never had a problem with any arriving. Have only shipped to U.K. , Canada and Australia, but everything I've sent has arrived safely.
On the other hand, three packages mailed in the U.S. to me in the last two years have arrived empty.

I send hundreds of packages out a year all over the world.
India is the only country I will not send to unless its signature confirmation and insured. Which makes it prohibitively expensive.
I have lost packages to these countries this year.

Poland
Turkey
Australia

Most of the recipients have been very understanding.

Packages to some countries take months to arrive.
Ecuador 2 months after sending
Philippines 2 months after sending
UK most of the time a few days but one package to almost 3 months to arrive.

Incoming mail is a little bit hit and miss I now tend to get insurance on anything major I buy in the USA, several high value packages have never arrived Claiming on the USPS insurance is a pain but for the most part they do pay up.

Edited for spelling...

Not sure about sending coins to other countries but some years back my Son spent a semester at the University of Krakow in Poland. His group toured from Brussels all the way through Europe to Poland and after that semester ended, same way back. He knows I'm a coin collector but knows nothing about coins. He sent me coins from every country he passed through and some from countries near them. I didn't have the hart to tell him I don't collect foreign coins so I ended up with several boxes of odd, wierd, strange coins from places all over Europe. Never had any lost in the mail. Never had them opened that I knew of either.

I have received shipments from the Phillippines, Canada, and Portugal with no problem. P.I. and Portugal took about 10 days or so, Canada only a couple days.

I am not to sure about shipping, it has been about 15 years since I shipped anything overseas. The was to the U.K. and took like two weeks I think.

My 8 year old daughter loves the foreign stuff! Anytime we go to a store or show I let her root through their bins and she always gravitates toward the odd shaped coins. LOL She will even pick out damaged U.S. coins! ROFL

I think I have also started her towards understanding silver and why you should invest in it! I wish someone had taught me that when I was young!

I've had mail or packages from the US to this small town BC and they seem to usually arrive between 2 and 3 weeks later. Generally more than 2 weeks. Once I received something from Texas within a few days, but I think the quickness was due to the special Christmas time added deliveries. And this included priority posts and first class!!! Dogsled and Pony Express perhaps?

It even takes up to 10 days sometimes for mail to get to me from Toronto to BC!! And more than 7 from Calgary, which is only about 5 hours from me. Most mail is first routed to the big cities then resorted there, then rerouted to Provinces towns destinations.

I have no idea how long it would take for letters or packages sent from me to get to US or other countries.

I don't know the process of sending packages to the US or internationally at all. Are there special rules, or customs things I should know about? especially for things like coins? In my case I'd be sending just a few circulated coins now and then and they would be gifts or trades, nothing sold. Nothing bulk or very valuable.

I'm keeping all these comments in mind. Thanks everyone!

If your shipment to an overseas address took more than a couple of weeks, chances are that it got "bumped" from airpost to surface mail here in the states, even if it was marked "airmail". Check with your local postal clerk to make sure that your package is marked and stamped correctly so that there's no chance that it can get bumped.

FYI when I was still mailing by First-Class mail a magazine that I published, I found that the mag consistently arrived at addresses in the UK at least a day ahead of addresses in Canada. Proximity is not a good guide to estimated mailing times, and how long a package takes to clear customs may be much more relevant.

vermontensium - your clerk is an ... um ... er ... completely in error. If not, the plane that flew the boxes of books that I sent via USPS to Tinian Island last year had a 4-week holding pattern somewhere.

You can still send packages via surface mail. Yes, there hasn't been "third-class mail" for 20 years or so now. First-class mail is tightly regulated, and the document that regulates it and other mail weighs about ten pounds, so maybe your clerk hasn't been able to read through it yet, lol.

Want to have some fun? Take some International Reply Coupons in and ask him to cash them for you ...