Postal Code/Introduction about postal code
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A postal code (known in various countries as a post code, postcode, or ZIP code) is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.
Germany was the first country to introduce a postal code system, in 1941. The United Kingdom followed in 1959 and the United States in 1963.
In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems. Examples of countries that do not are Ireland (although one will be introduced there in 2008 [1]), Hong Kong, Panama and Vietnam.
Although postal codes are usually assigned to geographical areas, special codes are sometimes assigned to individual addresses or to institutions that receive large volumes of mail, such as government agencies and large commercial companies. One example is the French Cedex system.
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Usage conventions
Postal services have their own formats and placement rules for postal codes. In most English-speaking countries, the postal code forms the last item of the address, whereas in most continental European countries it precedes the name of the city or town.
National prefixes
In some countries (for instance continental Europe, where many countries use the same postcode format of four or five numeric digits) it is advisable to prefix the numeric postal code with a country code to avoid confusion when sending international mail to or from that country. The codes used are generally based on Licence plate codes — for instance "D-" for Germany or "F-" for France — rather than ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. Note the ISO Alpha 2-codes are recommended.
Alphanumeric postal codes
Most postal codes are numeric. The few using alphanumeric postal code systems (with letters and digits) are:
- Argentina
- Bermuda
- Brunei
- Canada
- Jamaica
- Malta
- Moldova
- The Netherlands
- United Kingdom
- Venezuela
Postal zone numbers
Before postal codes as described here were used, large cities were often divided into postal zones or postal districts, usually numbered from 1 upwards within each city. The newer postal code systems often incorporate the old zone numbers, as with London postal district numbers, for example. Dublin, Ireland, still uses postal district numbers, although a postcode system is due to be rolled out for the whole country by 2008. (An Post relies on OCR analysis of the entire address instead.) In New Zealand, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were divided into postal zones, but these have fallen into disuse.
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