What is this weird little card?

May 11, 2012 5:08 PM

What is this weird little card that I got in the mail?

I found it stuck to a letter, but it has not obvious connection to any of my mail. The top and bottom have perforations, like it was torn off a larger strip.

I blacked out some areas that contained general address information.

posted by cosmic.osmo to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

It may be a stray postal bin label.
posted by bookmammal at 5:11 PM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't know why it was on there, but this site explains all the codes at least. (Found by Googling FCM LTR CR from the top left corner of the label)
posted by JannaK at 5:14 PM on May 11, 2012

Best answer: Yep, it's a Barcoded Tray Label (scroll down).
posted by trip and a half at 5:14 PM on May 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Correct, it's a tray label. The ones in trip and a half's link are way old; they no longer use the zebra code at all, and instead of the ten digit barcode in the examples it's now the 24-digit code you see on yours (some labels may still have the transition label, which included both the old 10 digit code and the new 24 digit). Current info is here (scroll down to 4.3, the Intelligent Mail section) They're used for routing mail through the system. It was most likely printed off a Microcom 426 or Microcom 466 printer. And I helped design it. :)
posted by inigo2 at 8:35 AM on May 12, 2012 [8 favorites]