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The term dead letter has several usages, each deriving from the notion of mail that is no longer deliverable. In the field of postal delivery a dead letter refers to a letter or parcel sent via the mail that for some reason is undeliverable or unclaimed. There are several scenarios that could lead to this situation. The letter may have been addressed to a nonexistent location, a location which existed at the time of the sending of the letter but was destroyed or abandoned before it could be delivered with no forwarding address provided, or the address could have become unreadable. It is also possible that the letter was sent without postage or a return address. Depending upon the class of postage under which the letter is sent or the policy of the postal service in charge of the letter's delivery the letter will be returned to its originator (if possible) or destroyed. The United States Postal Service has a policy of Mail Recovery Centers formerly the Dead Letter Office. When a person, most likely a soldier, is not sure of his survival and has in his possession documents or information important to that person such as vital military intelligence or a personal message to a loved one, transfers the documents to anyone he trusts before he dies in order to ensure the information will be conveyed. A dead letter can also refer to anything that has outlived its relevance, such as a law which has not been revoked but is obsolete, unapplicable, or no longer enforced. This includes, but is not limited to blue laws.
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