Postal codes, internationally
Garrett Wollman
postal codes around the world. I've noticed a few different
arrangements...
In the US, we have an all-numeric code of either five or nine digits.
In cities which were large enough to have postal zones before the
Zoning Improvement Plan was introduced, the old zone number is often
the last two digits of the ZIP code; thus, New York 3 became 10103.
Having your own ZIP code is considered an important status symbol for
a city or town (or company), as it allows the Postal Service (and
other companies) to distinguish between the town in question and any
other town. Here in Vermont, there was a great fight between the City
of South Burlington and the USPS to get the Postal Service to even
recognize the existence of South Burlington as a separate entity from
Burlington (they've only been legally separate for a century or so);
the Postal Service finally gave in granted Sourh Burlington the code
05403.
In Britain, they have something of a hybrid system. Most postcodes in
Britain seem to be of the form AA9 9AA, where `A' is any letter and
`9' any digit. However, it is obvious by inspection that the first
part is really contrived, rather than assigned according to some
logical system. Thus, Oxford is `OX1', and the very old `E.C.' (East
Central) district of London has `EC1' and so on. (It appears that
they sometimes run out of space in the second part, which they make up
for by fiddling with the first part; thus, the Houses of Parliament
are coded `SW1A 0AA'---obviously the most important thing in the
city...)
The Canadians have adopted a system similar in form to the British
system, but by use of systematic assignment have managed to make a
more efficient use of the space afforded. Canadian codes are of the
form `A1A 1A1'. That the organization is systematic is rather clearly
shown by considering that a code located in Station A, Toronto, is
`M5W 1E6', and one in Station C, Montreal, is `H2L 4G8'. (Perhaps a
Canadian reader can find out where `A1A 1A1' is located---if it even
exists---and let us know.)
The Irish don't bother with postal codes. In Australia, a system
similar to the US scheme is used, although I believe the codes are
only four digits.
Throughout most of Continental Europe, a numeric system is used.
Unlike the English-speaking countries, European postal codes are
generally placed before the city name; this may have something to do
with the fact that (in most of Europe) the intermediate levels of
government are not normally named in the address, whereas in the
English-speaking countries, they are. In some countries, city zones
are still used. In some places they are encoded in the postal code
and then optionally omitted from the address; in others they are
encoded so but left in the address; and in still others they are not
encoded in the code and thus must be left in the address. There are
often rural areas in these countries which are numbered differently;
for example, in Finland, `20810 Turku' is quite definitely the zone
numbered 81 of that city (or at least it said so on my map), but
`71570 Syv{nniemi' is a small village southeast of Kuopio which
definitely doesn't need zones. (Look for highways 551 and 5792 if you
want to find this place on a map.)
Also in Europe, it is customary to prefix the postal code on
international mail with the abbreviation for the country (generally,
the same one that appears on the backs of cars from that country).
This may or may not be combined with the English or local name of the
country in question. So, if we return to Finland for another example,
a conceivable address might be:
Prof. Timo Virtanen
University of Helsinki
SF-00100 Helsinki 10
FINLAND
(If there really is a Timo Virtanen there, my apologies; I was trying
to avoid using the name of the real person I know there.) Notice that
the abbreviation used is `SF', which is non-offensive to the
linguistic majority, rather than the ISO 3166 code `FI'; this is the
same code that appears on the back of Finnish cars and appliances
approved for sale there. Similarly you have Switzerland `CH', the
former Soviet Union `SU', etc.
(For even more confusion, consider the abbreviations for currencies:
Finnish mark `FIM'; Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish crowns `SEK',
`NOK', and `DKK'; and so on. These rarely coincide with the local
abbreviations for the same: `FMk', `SKr', etc. Banks often just give
up and display the flags of the various countries rather than trying
to figure out how to write the name in a way that will be intelligible
to both locals trying to buy and tourists trying to sell. When I was
in Finland five years ago, the conventional wisdom was that these four
currencies were all equal in value anyway, so why worry about it.)
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | Shashish is simple, it's discreet, it's brief. ...
wol...@emba.uvm.edu | Shashish is the bonding of hearts in spite of distance.
uvm-gen!wollman | It is a bond more powerful than absence. We like people
UVM disagrees. | who like Shashish. - Claude McKenzie + Florent Vollant
Robert Scott
On the topic of English derived countries using alphanumeric
postcodes whereas most others use just numeric postcodes.
I believe that research on memory retention has consistently shown
that people find it easy to remember a code if it consists of either
letters or numerals but we find it difficult to remember codes which
mix the two.
So basically we Brits should scrap our alphanumeric postcode
system and go for a numeric one.
One of the stupid things about the alphanumeric system is that
county boundaries change the postcodes remain the same.
So for example, a code for somewhere in Hornchurch might be something like:
RM11 1AA
Where the RM stands for Romford, presumably where the post for
Hornchurch is sorted.
But Hornchurch is in greater London now and so logically should have
a London code like:
E99 1AA
I don't know.
I just find it all very untidy.
--
Rob Scott
Dept of AI email: r...@aisb.ed.ac.uk
Univ of Edinburgh Tel: 031-650-2713
Edinburgh, SCOTLAND, EH1 1HN
Colin Bell
|> In Britain, they have something of a hybrid system. Most postcodes in
|> Britain seem to be of the form AA9 9AA, where `A' is any letter and
|> `9' any digit. However, it is obvious by inspection that the first
|> part is really contrived, rather than assigned according to some
|> logical system. Thus, Oxford is `OX1', and the very old `E.C.' (East
|> Central) district of London has `EC1' and so on. (It appears that
|> they sometimes run out of space in the second part, which they make up
|> for by fiddling with the first part; thus, the Houses of Parliament
|> are coded `SW1A 0AA'---obviously the most important thing in the
|> city...)
The first part _isn't_ contrived. The country is divided into 100 or so
'post-towns', each of which has a two letter abbreviation. Each is then
subdivided into various areas, and then subdivided again. For example, my
postcode is CB5 8AF. CB is Cambridge, and I live in district 5 (basically the
NE of the city, and in the 8th subdistrict of it. AF identifies the area within
it (in this case a small street of about 30 houses). The SW1A I think is only
used in two areas of London (SW1 and W1) to give more namespace (the A tend to
be businesses, government offices and the like). It's more usual to split an
area into two (for example CR2 (Croydon 2) recently split into CR2 and CR8).
Since the London ones have a much longer history, they're probably more
reluctant to split them.
|> ... There are
|> often rural areas in these countries which are numbered differently;
|> for example, in Finland, `20810 Turku' is quite definitely the zone
|> numbered 81 of that city (or at least it said so on my map), but
|> `71570 Syv{nniemi' is a small village southeast of Kuopio which
|> definitely doesn't need zones. (Look for highways 551 and 5792 if you
|> want to find this place on a map.)
You'll probably find that codes 715xx refer to areas near it. Certainly this
is the case in France, where (to take a typical example) in the Haute-Loire
department, 43000 is Le Puy en Velay (the capital), with 430xx being its
districts, 43100 is Brioude (the second largest town), 43200 Yssingeaux, and
43230 (if my memory serves me right) is St Julien-Chapteuil, a town near
Yssingeaux.
--
-
Colin Bell, CR...@CUS.CAM.AC.UK
Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge.
Lauren Skinner
>I've been thinking about the different kinds and conventions for
>postal codes around the world. I've noticed a few different
>arrangements...
>system, but by use of systematic assignment have managed to make a
>more efficient use of the space afforded. Canadian codes are of the
>form `A1A 1A1'. That the organization is systematic is rather clearly
>shown by considering that a code located in Station A, Toronto, is
>`M5W 1E6', and one in Station C, Montreal, is `H2L 4G8'. (Perhaps a
>Canadian reader can find out where `A1A 1A1' is located---if it even
>exists---and let us know.)
Then of course, there's HO HO HO, the postal code for Santa Claus at the
North Pole...
Michael Covington
>Then of course, there's HO HO HO, the postal code for Santa Claus at the
>North Pole...
*Ahem* To be a valid Canadian post code, it would have to be H0H 0H0.
Trivia question: What are the lowest and highest numbered US ZIP codes?
That is, where are the nearest approximations to 00000 and 99999?
(I think the very low 0's would be military post offices, but I could
be wrong.)
--
:- Michael A. Covington, Associate Research Scientist : *****
:- Artificial Intelligence Programs mcov...@ai.uga.edu : *********
:- The University of Georgia phone 706 542-0358 : * * *
:- Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A. amateur radio N4TMI : ** *** ** <><
woody
>>The Canadians have adopted a system similar in form to the British
>>system, but by use of systematic assignment have managed to make a
>>more efficient use of the space afforded. Canadian codes are of the
>>form `A1A 1A1'. That the organization is systematic is rather clearly
>>shown by considering that a code located in Station A, Toronto, is
>>`M5W 1E6', and one in Station C, Montreal, is `H2L 4G8'. (Perhaps a
>>Canadian reader can find out where `A1A 1A1' is located---if it even
>>exists---and let us know.)
Axx xxx codes are in the province of Newfoundland, likely St John's but I'd
have to search through a postal code book to see if A1A 1A1 exists. The
highest valid letter for Canada is Y in the Yukon territory.
M5W 1E6 is the CBC's postal code for box 500 Station A. There are different
postal codes used for different box number ranges, thus M5W 1E6 is not the
only postal code for Station A.
India uses six digit number "PIN" codes.
Germany just moved to a standard 5 digit number system; they used to have
separate four digit systems for the east and west Germanies and until the new
codes, this system was used with a letter O (for Ost or East Germany) and W
for West.
Kurt Jaeger aka PI
>Germany just moved to a standard 5 digit number system; they used to have
>separate four digit systems for the east and west Germanies and until the new
>codes, this system was used with a letter O (for Ost or East Germany) and W
>for West.
And because the hassle was quite big, the postal service distributed
CD-ROM discs with all the street and ZIP codes. You can get the stuff
via ano-ftp from info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de:/pub/misc/datasets/PLZ,
its, approx. 13 MB in size.
Thats quite useful to convert old into new addresses. On ftp.germany.eu.net
in /pub/X11/misc/xplz is a software called xplz (motif) that
help to convert addresses.
So short, PI
--
PI at the User Help Desk Comp.Center U of Stuttgart, FRG 27 years to go !
EMail: p...@rus.uni-stuttgart.de
Phone: +49 711 685-4828 (aka Kurt Jaeger)
Stephen Graham
>In article <1993Sep8.0...@emr1.emr.ca> lski...@emr1.emr.ca (Lauren Skinner) writes:
>
>>Then of course, there's HO HO HO, the postal code for Santa Claus at the
>>North Pole...
>
>*Ahem* To be a valid Canadian post code, it would have to be H0H 0H0.
>
>Trivia question: What are the lowest and highest numbered US ZIP codes?
>That is, where are the nearest approximations to 00000 and 99999?
>(I think the very low 0's would be military post offices, but I could
>be wrong.)
According to the 1992 5-Digit Directory, the lowest codes would belong
to the Westchester, NY Sectional Center, assigned the 004xx range. However,
no zip-codes were listed following it's entry (or that of Mid-Island 005xx),
so the lowest entry is Adjuntas, PR 00601.
Highest entry is Wrangell, AK 99929.
--
Stephen Graham
gra...@cs.washington.edu uw-beaver!june!graham
James Hupf
>
>We need to get some U.S. Postal Service employees involved in this
>newsgroup (mostly to keep them out of rec.guns, but also so ythey can
>answer difficult questions).
>--
I'm sure that if anyone did that and the USPS acted true to form they
would refuse because the Internet E-Mail would be considered a competator
and they do not encourage competition from activities outside the USPS!
I was involved in supporting the USPS and they had a firm policy for their
local postmasters to REFUSE derliveries made to them by United Parcel
Services or other small package carriers - the sight of the Brown UPS
truck making a delivery was thought to be bad for the public image of an
organization that provides basically the same services!
--
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Nigel Allen
In article <26jk94$5...@hobbes.cc.uga.edu> mcov...@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) writes:
>>Trivia question: What are the lowest and highest numbered US ZIP codes?
>>That is, where are the nearest approximations to 00000 and 99999?
>>(I think the very low 0's would be military post offices, but I could
>>be wrong.)
In a previous article, gra...@cs.washington.edu (Stephen Graham) says:
>According to the 1992 5-Digit Directory, the lowest codes would belong
>to the Westchester, NY Sectional Center, assigned the 004xx range. However,
>no zip-codes were listed following it's entry (or that of Mid-Island 005xx),
>so the lowest entry is Adjuntas, PR 00601.
>
>Highest entry is Wrangell, AK 99929.
I think zip codes less than 00400 may be used internally for
mail to Canada and other international points.
Similarly, someone has said that Canada Post codes mail for
U.S. points by appplying coding bars which correspond to X9Z and the
first three digits for the U.S. zip code.
We need to get some U.S. Postal Service employees involved in this
newsgroup (mostly to keep them out of rec.guns, but also so ythey can
answer difficult questions). Can you call up your local postmaster or
U.S. Postal Service public affairs manager and explain how cool Usenet in
general and this newsgroup in particular are?
--
Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ae...@freenet.carleton.ca
Scott D Fybush
actually using 00401 last year. That 004XX block is, to my understanding,
assigned SOLELY for the use of Readers Digest.
Ajuntas is still the lowest _geographical_ ZIP code. Now how about the
lowest geographical zip code on the US mainland? the highest?
-=Scott=-
Stephen Graham
>Ajuntas is still the lowest _geographical_ ZIP code. Now how about the
>lowest geographical zip code on the US mainland? the highest?
Agawam, Massachusetts 01001, and Clarkston, Washington, 99403.
Ender Wiggin
>In article <CD3B6...@world.std.com> fyb...@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) writes:
>>Ajuntas is still the lowest _geographical_ ZIP code. Now how about the
>>lowest geographical zip code on the US mainland? the highest?
>Agawam, Massachusetts 01001, and Clarkston, Washington, 99403.
Wrong. I believe it to be Ketchikan, AK 99928
Ajay Shekhawat
Wrong again! 99928 is Ward Cove; the highest ZIP for Ketchikan is 99950.
Ajay
Eric Sasaki
Wrong. The original post asked for the zip on the US mainland, i.e. the
contiguous 48-states. Alaska and Hawaii don't count.
Eric
--
Eric M. Sasaki, Georgia Tech INTA Undergrad | Nam et ispa scientia potestas est.
Internet: esa...@nyx.cs.du.edu <or> | [Knowledge is power.]
gt7...@prism.gatech.edu | - Francis Bacon
Slow Boat: Box 37294 Georgia Tech Station, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-1001 USA
Gerben Vos
numbers indicate the region, the rest of the numbers indicates smaller
areas, down to a city district or a group of small towns (e.g., Amsterdam has
1000-1099, plus 1100-1109). Together with the letters, a postal code
indicates a group of about 40 addresses or PO boxes.
Postal codes which are reserved for PO boxes (almost?) always end with a zero,
but there are exceptions. E.g., Hoofddorp has 2130 reserved for PO boxes, but
Amsterdam has 1000-1009, as well as 1010, 1020, etc. to 1090 and 1100;
For smaller post offices with few PO boxes, PO boxes may have codes which
don't end with a zero, but those codes are usually also used for normal street
addresses.
The postal codes go *before* the town name, e.g., 1097 NE Amsterdam .
Belgium uses 4 numbers, which go before the town name.
ger...@cs.vu.nl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . G e r b e n V o s <><
"Dear Jesus, i have a problem. It's me."
"Dear child, i have the answer. It's Me."
NOTE THE CHANGED EMAIL ADDRESS: ger...@cs.vu.nl
Scott D Fybush
And had I phrased the original question more clearly, the answer would
have been unambiguously Clarkston. The highest zip in the 48 contiguous
states is indeed 99403. The highest zip on the North American mainland
is either Ketchikan 99928 or Wrangell 99929. My Alaska geography is
rusty -- and I don't recall whether Wrangell is on an island or not.
-=Scott 02154-4348=-
Justin Klein
> Trivia question: What are the lowest and highest numbered US ZIP codes?
> That is, where are the nearest approximations to 00000 and 99999?
> (I think the very low 0's would be military post offices, but I could
> be wrong.)
I don't know what the lowest and highest ZIPCodes are, but I can tell you
where to look.
What the first digits of your ZIP turn out to be is wholly a function
f geography. The ZIP divides the US into 10 geographic regions called
"zones", numbered 0-9. The second digit is a region within a zone,
third a region within that region, and the last two your local area
or neighborhood or whatever.
We have an old PO ZIP Code guide, and Zone 0 is the northeastern "small"
states...NH, VT, MA, ME, CT, RI. The lowest of the codes.. 00XXX...
occur in Maine, and seem to increase numerically from north to south.
Look in Maine for your lowest ZIP code.
Zone 9 is the Western States...CA, OR, WA, AK, HI and other Pacific islands.
I find that the 90XXX's occur is southern California and increase as you
go north. Here, in Portland OR, my ZIP is 97202. The 99XXX's are in
Alaska. Look for your high ZIP there.
Justin.
--
Justin the Blue jus...@m2xenix.psg.com My opinions,
SunDial Earth Station ea...@agora.rain.com My chips 'n' Salsa,
SunDial Maps Native Oregonian My bottle of Rum.
Portland, OR, USA *********************** Take 'em if you dare.
Garrett Wollman
Justin Klein <jus...@psg.com> wrote:
>We have an old PO ZIP Code guide, and Zone 0 is the northeastern "small"
>states...NH, VT, MA, ME, CT, RI.
You left out New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and New York.
004 New York
005 New York
006 Puerto Rico
007 Puerto Rico
008 US Virgin Islands
009 Puerto Rico
01 Western Mass.
02 Eastern Mass./Rhode Island
03 New Hampshire
04 Maine
05 Vermont
06 Connecticut
07 New Jersey
08 New Jersey
09 New York (City)
While looking these up in the Geographic Name Server, I also came
across:
0 A
1 36027 Dutchess
2 NY New York
3 US United States
F 45 Populated place
Z 12601
.
B
0 B
1 36027 Dutchess
2 NY New York
3 US United States
F 45 Populated place
Z 12601
Anybody know who lives in A, New York?
aj...@albali.cs.buffalo.edu
:
: While looking these up in the Geographic Name Server, I also came
: across:
:
: 0 A
: 1 36027 Dutchess
: 2 NY New York
: 3 US United States
: F 45 Populated place
: Z 12601
:
: .
: B
: 0 B
: 1 36027 Dutchess
: 2 NY New York
: 3 US United States
: F 45 Populated place
: Z 12601
:
:
: Anybody know who lives in A, New York?
:
: -GAWollman
This seems to be a typo in the City-State file. I just checked: these records
were present in the April 1992 version, but are missing in the July 1993
version. I guess the Postal Service must've noticed the errors.
The City-State file is a file used by the Postal Service, which
lists all valid ZIPcodes, along with the city names which belong to the
ZIP, as well as city names popularly used for that ZIP, plus misspellings.
For example, 14226 is actually in Amherst, NY; however, people write Buffalo
also, and so Buffalo is listed as an alternative name for 14226.
As for misspellings, we have the following for Albany NY (12260):
ALBANY, NY
ALGANV, NY
ALKANV, NY
ALBANZ, NY
These misspellings help their OCR machines sort better, too.
Ajay
Michael Moroney
>>We have an old PO ZIP Code guide, and Zone 0 is the northeastern "small"
>>states...NH, VT, MA, ME, CT, RI.
>You left out New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and New York.
>004 New York
...
I think all New York zips starting with 0 aren't real physical places,
but are "special" zip codes such as APO addresses. Every zip code of
an actual town/city in NY I've seen starts with 1.
-Mike
Ender Wiggin
>I think all New York zips starting with 0 aren't real physical places,
>but are "special" zip codes such as APO addresses. Every zip code of
>an actual town/city in NY I've seen starts with 1.
What about Boston, Massachucits? 02134 is a ZIP there as I recall.
(Did anyone else out there ever watch the kids show Zoom besides me?)
Keith Kushner
: I think all New York zips starting with 0 aren't real physical places,
: but are "special" zip codes such as APO addresses. Every zip code of
: an actual town/city in NY I've seen starts with 1.
Not quite: some have ZIP codes starting "06" because delivery is
routed through Connecticut. Fishers Island, New York, is one, if
I recall correctly.