USPS "Stolen/Lost" Coins

Haven't seen any specific posts regarding this however, here's some insider information (employee).

The USPS had several semi trucks that were flooded during the two Hurricanes this summer. The mail inside the trailers received a HAZMAT designation and have to be handled different, way different. The rotted perishables are difficult to deal with, plenty of maggots and flies, the stench is horrendous, the mold is thick. The fluids leak into all the other mail. It's a long process to present these back into the mail stream. We are still working containers from September. I still have one trailer (full) at my facility to get through.

The trucks were flooded in New Orleans, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee. A lot of the mail originated from the West Coast. New Orleans is the first stop for distribution to the lower East Coast. The USPS dispersed this mail to several facilities to decontaminate. I happen to be one of the lucky ones. I'm on my fourth and final trailer and will begin the process tomorrow (12/26). Most of this mail will only have an acceptance scan and if subsequent scans show up, it will be from one of the lucky facilities. Honestly, most of it is unscannable, it may just show up if we can read an address.

Yes, I'm finding coins/collections in this mess. As a collector, buyer and seller, these get the best treatment that I can give them. Generally, the packages are too far gone to place back into the mail stream, I box these up into a fresh container and send them to our Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta, GA. If there's a readable receipt inside the package, I'll send that too, hoping that we can match sender and recipient at some point. However, it's critical to file a missing mail search to make the reunion happen. When Atlanta receives these from me, a 45 day window begins, if there's no matching claim, they dispose of them, how, I don't know.

Not every coin/collection finds it's way to Atlanta though, if the value is less than $25, the general rule is to donate to a local charity. Being an enthusiast, I realize that a bank roll of US cents could be worth more than that, those don't go to Atlanta, as least at my facility, I assume these are a transaction between coin collectors.

It's amazing how many coins/collections show up "loose in the mail" on a monthly basis, all year long. Sometimes due to USPS mishandling but more often than not, they just aren't packaged properly. It's not always a hurricane.

If any of you think you're affected by the aforementioned or have a current issue with the USPS regarding coins/collections and JUST coin/collection mail pieces, reach out.