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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 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.121.24.47 (talk) 18:07, 11 December 2002 (UTC)
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, 11 December 2002 (UTC)
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 — Preceding undated comment added 17:17, 1 August 2003 (UTC)
You're right, though. Deb 17:28, 1 August 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 — Preceding undated comment added 18:17, 1 August 2003 (UTC)
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 August 2003 (UTC)
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 November 2003 (UTC)
Tobias Conradi 19:50, 4 January 2004 (UTC)
Do the country names need to be bold? --Hemanshu 12:25, 3 June 2004 (UTC)
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 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.36.104.107 (talk) 13:35, 30 August 2004 (UTC)
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). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.92.168.167 (talk) 18:54, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
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 something need to be changed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tommylommykins (talk • contribs) 19:00, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
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)
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)
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 <redacted>
99.228.195.127 19:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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. http://zip.belpost.by/content/history 142.244.43.106 (talk) 22:18, 24 February 2009 (UTC)
Please do not delete the overview table as it gives more information than was previously there. Also the table allows for sorting and has links to all the articles in form "Postal codes in ...", which are perfect for country series. The page as it was would not be manageable for information about _all_ countries. TrueColour (talk) 02:43, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
I added to some articles:
Postal codes in Africa | |
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Sovereign states |
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States with limited recognition |
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Dependencies and other territories |
Postal codes in the Americas | ||
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Regions |
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Sovereign states |
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Postal codes in Europe | |
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Sovereign states |
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States with limited recognition |
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Dependencies and other entities |
TrueColour (talk) 02:55, 9 October 2009 (UTC)
This article repeats the erronoeous belief that house name and postcode uniquely identifies a building in the UK. If you check http://postcode.royalmail.com/portal/rm/addressfinder and look for house number 1 at HD7 5XA you will find no fewer than eleven number ones in that postcode. This is surely not unique. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.8.33.69 (talk) 13:39, 15 February 2011 (UTC)
It also repeats the belief that the first line of the address and postcode uniquely identify a postbox. The PAF contains a number of addresses which start with a surname (usually that of an occupant) in brackets, possibly to reflect farmhouses which were split into two some time ago. There are web page which give these addresses without the bracketed line (such as this one which refers to a Gilsbrake, Vidlin, Shetland, ZE2 9QB), but I don't know if there is any official guidance on how to correctly send a letter to such an address. Aoeuidhtns (talk) 12:57, 8 September 2011 (UTC)
Doesn't this really mean that (some or all) Australian post offices have their postcodes on their external signs? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.103.145 (talk) 15:49, 5 May 2012 (UTC)
The Format section of this article duplicates what is in List of postal codes. I suggest removing the section and having just a link to List of postal codes. Lkmorlan (talk) 14:24, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
The section titled "Precision" has a lot of information on certain countries' general code formats. Such information is not directly related to precision, and besides, the information given for the US is inaccurate. I suggest some pruning. Doctor Whom (talk) 23:12, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
According to the article, postcodes were first used in the USSR in the 1930s. Would the London postal district codes - in use as abbreviated letters from the 1850s - count as an early form? "London NW" seems to be a "postal code" albeit a very basic one. Numbers were added in WWI. Andrew Gray (talk) 19:11, 19 May 2013 (UTC)
The map used on this page; File:Postal codes by country.svg, is inaccurate and outdated (as was much of the page - I've tried to bring it up to date where possible ...). It doesn't show countries which now have codes, does not show countries which have mixed formats (e.g. USA and UK - it shows these as though they have fixed formats), shows some countries as having codes where they don't .... A more accurate (though not as professional) map is available at http://www.grcdi.nl/WorldPostalCodeFormats01.2013.png . Can the author of the map currently shown on the page be contacted for an updated version? Or can somebody make a new one? I can provide all required information.
Grahamrhind (talk) 13:05, 6 November 2013 (UTC) Graham Rhind
Aside from the outdated features noted previously, I wonder if a new map could distinguish numeric postal codes on the basis of whether or not leading zeroes are allowed – and, if they are, whether they are – as is logically possible – used only for military or diplomatic mail?
In fact, if anybody has decent comparative data, information on how various countries use postal codes for military and diplomatic mail would certainly be welcome. Looking through the sites it does appear that some countries do not have postal codes set aside for military or diplomatic mail, as ZIP codes 09000 to 09999 are in the US. luokehao, 13th October 2014 23:14 (UTC)
It is not very clear from the article what the actual purpose of postal codes is. Only a brief note that it is for purpose of sorting mail, without any further details. --francesco3 (talk) 12:24, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
Some long-standing links have been removed due, apparently, to a perceived conflict of interest. Please note that I receive absolutely nothing through visits to the pages concerned. There is no pay per click advertising and the fixed advertising simply helps to offset the hosting costs. The links are for resources considered authoritative and have been published (in book form and now online) since 1994, and are the result of 22 years of continuous research. I add them to provide a quality resource to Wikipedia users. Please consider restoring: Global Sourcebook for International Data Management, http://www.grcdi.nl/linkspc.htm Links to pages on the web with information about postal codes and http://www.grcdi.nl/linkspo.htm Links to postal service web pages. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grahamrhind (talk • contribs) 15:53, 15 February 2017 (UTC)
The map lists that the US uses a 10 digit postal code. While this is technically true in theory, in practice it tends to get rarely used, and very few people even know their ZIP+4 by heart because it is not very useful to them. I know there are other concerns that people have with the map, but I think that it should be listed as both 5 and 9 digits, striped to signify that it has both. Calling ZIP codes 9 digits doesn't sit well for me, because it is mostly not used that way.
Dangeredwolf (talk) 12:34, 18 October 2018 (UTC)
The text says 'In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems.' - could a newer figure be used (or add 'and in (date) the numbers were ...). Jackiespeel (talk) 11:27, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
@Krauss: Some some references should be added to this unsourced section. To me it seems more like a creative idea than real life criticism. Some claims seem unrealistic, eg. "without administrative cost". Who have criticized the system in which countries in which media? References, or the section shuld be deleted. --Madglad (talk) 13:26, 10 August 2021 (UTC)