Talk:Postal code

Old posts from 2002-2004

Put your text for the new page here.

Dear Sirs or Madams: Please inform me if an information source where I may locate a list of nations of the world that "do not" have postal codes. Your assistance shall be sincerely appreciated. Thank you, C. Robert Keathley, opa@pflash.com

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Hm, well that's an interesting enquiry ... the encyclopedia doesn't usually work quite like that, it usually tries to grow the encylopedia itself, rather than respond directly to enquiries ... and yours is particularly tricky because you're looking for an absence of something, which might be a bit hard to see! Have you tried the (external link to) Universal Postal Union website? They have a section on postcodes - maybe you will get some help there. Good luck. By the way I have responded here rathert than dirrectly to your email becasue I sort of think that's more what we should be doing. I hope this helps. Nevilley 18:13 Dec 11, 2002 (UTC)

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Can 'numbers' and 'digits' be used interchangeably? I thought numbers could consist of any number of digits, but I am not a native speaker of English. branko

You're right, though. Deb 17:28, 1 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Thanks Deb.

Here's my next question: according to the text, 'Every nation has a different format and placement for the postal code'. Is this really nation dependendant, or more like postal company dependant? It strikes me as odd that nations would interfere with a company's business methods. branko

We only have one real postal company in the UK - the Royal Mail - and they make the decisions, I believe. Couriers and other delivery companies use the postcodes specified by the Royal Mail. Deb 19:59, 1 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Same in Canada...Canada Post is government-run, so it's not that the government is interfering with a private business. Other companies just use the postal codes specified by Canada Post. Adam Bishop 20:04, 1 Aug 2003 (UTC)

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I think it would be better if the examples used 1 and A instead of D and L. Eg, UK postcode would be AA11 1AA. opinions? -- Tarquin 11:21, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

if we change it, we should look at other articles as well. i once change inconsistance between AN and LD.

• A1 - is more like example
• AN - AlphaNumeric and the same as in UPU-documents
• DL -

Tobias Conradi 19:50, 4 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Do the country names need to be bold?

Do the country names need to be bold? --Hemanshu 12:25, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Date of changeover

I was seeking the year in which the zip code replaced the old postal zones in the U.S. Might be a nice addition to the page on postal codes. JD

'Postcode', 'Post code' and 'Postal Code'

The article title 'Postcode' notes the alternate spacing 'Post code' used in some countries (implying they're basically the same thing). By this logic 'Post Code' should redirect to 'postcode'; however, 'Post Code' *actually* redirects to 'Postal Code'....

Although I'd ask if this should be fixed, it presents a more general question about the organisation of content between the two articles. The 'Postcode' article aims to be generic (references to postcodes in countries outside the UK), yet concentrates on the UK system too much for this. And as mentioned, there's already a generic article about it ('Postal code')

My proposal is to move non-UK content in the 'postcode' article to the generic 'Postal code' article. This still leaves the UK-specific content remaining; and the article could then be titled more appropriately ('Postcodes in the UK', or something along those lines).

Finally, 'Post code' and 'Postcode' would both redirect to 'Postal code'.

(Apologies for the lack of account, which will be sorted. Please reply here, not to my anonymous 'user'. I'm on dial-up; plus, the address given is apparently the ISP's transparent web-cache address, not mine).

Article discrepancies

Hi. Has anyone noticed that Germany was the first country to recieve postcodes in 'the early 1960s', but the UK first got them in 1959.... Does oemthing need to be changed?

Too much information?

We now have information on how to write an address in Sweden ([1]). I think we need to keep this article to just information on post codes - what do you think? --Tim 21:16, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Germany First?

In fact UK used limited postcodes in major cities in the 19th Century - London, Manchester etc.

This was extended in the 1st world war when all the experienced postal sorters went off to war and replacements with no experience in sorting were brought in.

Article is correct in that a system was not adopted for the whole country until the 60s.

202.130.120.26 07:36, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Link Idea

Hi there. My name is Jordan Taylor and I was wondering if whoever the editor of the postal code (wikipedia) page is could review my site. I think it would make an excellent external link to the article not only because we offer a great postal/zip code lookup service, but also because we are currently listed as number on Google for the search query "postal code lookup" right after Canada post. Anyway, here is the information for the site www.postalcodelookup.ca

Name: Postal Code Lookup URL: http://www.postalcodelookup.ca/ Description: This site provides its users with access to useful postal and zip code listings, as well as other mailing components.

Thanks for your time, any questions please feel free to email me at jordan.taylor@dynamicsitestudio.com

99.228.195.127 19:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Country prefix

In Europe most countries now do no longer accept country prefixes in front of the post code as this can cause problems during the sorting process. Rather than prefixes the country name should be printed in full in the last line of the address. Ipwaz2003 09:59, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

If you can find some formal recommendations by some of these countries and/or by a European or world-wide standards body, please provide some references and improve the section. i had a look around and the best source i found was Frank da Cruz' page: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html#europe . Looking through the websites of the various official international bodies, it was not easy to find anything which seems to be a recommended standard. Even the UPU URL which i've put - http://www.upu.int/post_code/en/formatting_an_international_address_en.pdf - discusses the issue in a sentence which is grammatically faulty. i'm also curious about this UPU document's mention of "EN ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2" codes. Does this mean that there are a different set of ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 codes for every language according to the UPU? i.e. FR ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 codes and DE ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 codes and JA ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 codes and so on? Surely that would defeat the whole point of an international standard... Clearly the document is not that carefully written. Boud (talk) 14:05, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Could someone give me postal code of any area in USA (I mean,city)?

Could someone give me postal code of any area in USA (I mean,city)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by ModernTalking81 (talk • contribs) 16:34, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

There are plenty of online sources including usps.com. ww2censor (talk) 17:24, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Postal/ZIP Codes in the Philippines

The Philippine Postal Corporation refers to the postal codes as ZIP codes because despite being long independent from U.S. colonization, the government still has a predilection towards the U.S. This an example of colonial mentality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.125.33.139 (talk) 19:41, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Ireland

A partial update on the Irish postcode proposal can be found here Irish Times Tuesday, September 9, 2008 .--Trounce (talk) 13:37, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

The Irish Timesnewspaper report says that government departments will make savings but still no details or introduction date have been announced. ww2censor (talk) 14:26, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

There is some more info here:Postcode war 'in next year' -by John O'Keeffe Sunday Independent 21 Sept 2008--Trounce (talk) 11:31, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I sometimes get forms which say, "postcode obligatory" (even from Irish sources in spite of there being no postcodes here). I was advised to put in the area telephone code, in my case 051, followed by the next three digits, eg 337, which give some indication of the town or townland. Whilst this is totally unofficial it is apparently of some use to postal delivery people. Millbanks (talk) 09:16, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Can you make a scan and show an Irish source item. Are these An Post forms you refer to? Who told you to use a telephone code and can you get that in writing? Are there any verifiable sources for this? ww2censor (talk) 17:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Germany

The old German system consisted of two digits PLUS ONE LETTER. My birthplace had "21a". Phosphoros —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.102.96.226 (talk) 12:14, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Do you have any verifiable sources for this statement? If so, we can add it to the article, otherwise we will not add it. Thanks ww2censor (talk) 01:02, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

First postal "Indexes" introduced in Ukraine (USSR) in 1932

Postal codes were first implemented in the USSR from 1932 through 1939. They were called "Indexes" and were represented by a "number–letter–number" code, e.g., 12Y1, 14Y8 etc. The Cyrillic "Y" in the middle stood for "Ukraina." At that time, Kharkiv was the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, and the prefixes 1 to 10 before the "Y" were devoted to that city, where the system was founded; prefix numbers 11 to 20 were reserved for Kiev. The suffix digit indicated smaller postal districts. This system was discontinued at the start of the Second World War.

142.244.43.106 (talk) 22:18, 24 February 2009 (UTC)