Hacker News Reader

Comment by newfonewhodis | Hacker News Reader

> I had some Euros left over from a trip last summer. I put them in an envelope, put my super secret generated code on a piece of paper, and dropped it in the mailbox.

Oh awesome. I have some EUR left over as well. You can't send cash from the US to Sweden via mail right?

View on HN

You can. I live in Washington State and I also sent money through the mail a month ago. But it did take about two weeks for them to receive the money and credit my account.

TIL.

I'm also in WA. Did you just use https://www.usps.com/international/first-class-mail-internat...?

According to https://www.usps.com/international/letters.htm, it sounds like for cash you need to file a customs form. Did you do that too?

No. I just sent 20 bucks, my code written on a piece of paper, and I had to use 3 of those forever stamps. But technically, you do have to file the customs form.

For something that ships flat like that, a customs form is going to create more problems than it will ever solve.

I think you just didn't look deep enough. It says "Look up your destination country in the Index of Countries and Localities to make sure you’re following their rules." and the rules for Sweden say

> [...] paper money [...] are prohibited in Priority Mail Express International shipments to Sweden.

So don't pay for Priority Mail Express, just First-Class:

> First-Class Mail International is a generic term for mailpieces that are postcard-size, letter-size, or flat-size and weigh less than 16 ounces [...]

I sent it from Canada in a normal envelope. Just wrapped with a few sheets of paper to be sure it wasn't obvious there was cash inside.

I don't know about Sweden and even less about the US, but in France, for example, it's illegal to send cash via mail.

Not sure what would happen if they caught you.

For what reason? To remove the issue of tracking down money stolen in transit?

I have to imagine it’s one of those charges they can tack onto other criminal charges so that something sticks. Sending €20 won’t be a problem. Sending €20.000 will be.

Where the line in between lies, I have no idea.

In my European country, you can only mail money via insured mail. Otherwise it’s prohibited.

I assume it’s to avoid responsibility and money laundering.

From what I see there are limits on the amount of cash you can mail in the US as well.

Its mainly to avoid responsibility.

In reality, nobody gives a fuck if you mail someone 50 euros.

You can also just buy a Mullvad gift card on Amazon that has a random code that you have to scratch off to see.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com