Why did periods cost more on telegrams rather than full sized letters?

Question

Why did periods cost more on telegrams rather than full sized letters?

In: 21

Answer 1

Western Union used to charge a flat fee for messages shorter than 10 words, then by each additional word; not character. Although periods and numerals appear to have counted as one word each (according to their pricing guidelines that the string “44.42” would be priced at 5 words).

However, it seems to be an urban legend that people used “STOP” in place of a period to save costs – each would have been priced as one word. Technically it’s true that “STOP” is cheaper per character, but not in a consequential way.