Has Canada Post given up on franking postage stamps? I return them almost in bulk to my pen friends in Ontario as "souvenirs." Someone watches over the stream of mail from the UK to the US, swiping his ballpoint pen over the many high-priced stamps that regularly escape Britain's franking equipment. US franking machines haven't learned where stamps might be if away from the top edge of the envelope. A 1˘ in the upper right corner will be franked, leaving unscathed the $1.20 stamp well below that, but anything near the bottom edge can be barcoded. Germany's franks always hit their marks, as do those of the Netherlands.