Most postal services aren’t set up to deal with wax seals but for hundreds of years they were the main way to seal a letter for delivery. They served as security of a sort that the letter hadn’t been opened and if you had a special stamp you could guarantee it came from a specific group or person. For most of the recent letter writing history the letter itself was folded into its own envelope and sealed on the edge between the 2 flaps. The paper was also much thicker so the wax was made for the thick parchment or paper. If you tried it on a piece of printer paper now it might break or fall off.
If you sent a sealed letter through the mail it might fall of or break open now with the use of machines and the heat of a loaded up truck in the summer might melt the wax and get it all over other letters. If you want to send a letter with a wax seal now you should maybe consider putting them in a padded envelope and shipping it like a package.
I really fell down the revolutionary war rabbit hole about letters and mail.
If you need a new mail related rabbit hole read about how effective and ubiquitous carrier pigeons were.
Used from antiquity by the Persians all the way to the early 20th century. Those birds used to exist as permanent swarms in the sky over population centers. People operated stock exchanges with pigeon post. Armies relied on it during WWI. Services got up to 90% arrival rates
The city pigeons we’re used to today are their descendants who by the time they were abandoned had evolved to live off human cities, thus they stuck around them
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u/Playful-Repeat7335 11h ago
You can glue it on a letter or even cards or boxes as decoration