Post box
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The yellow box is for express mail.
A post box (United Kingdom and others, also written postbox), or mailbox (United States, Canada and others) is a physical box used to collect outgoing mail, that is mail that is to be sent to a destination. Post box can also refer to a letter box for incoming mail.
Varieties of post boxes (for outgoing mail) include:
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[edit] Types of post boxes
Some postal authorities have different types of post boxes for different types of post. For instance, there may be separate boxes for regular post and express post, for local addresses (defined by a range of postal codes) and out-of-town addresses, or for post bearing postage stamps and post bearing postage meter indicia.
[edit] Clearance
Post boxes are emptied ("cleared") at times usually listed on the side of the box. In metropolitan areas, this might be once or twice a day, while in country areas this might be once or twice a week[citation needed]. Busy boxes might be cleared at other times to avoid overflowing, and also to spread the work for the sorters.
Since 2005, most British post boxes have had the time of only the last collection of the day listed on the box, with no indication of whether the box is cleared at other times earlier in the day. The reason given for this by the Royal Mail is that they needed to increase the font size of the wording on the "plate" listing the collection times to improve legibility for those with poor sight and that consequently there was insufficient room for listing all collection times throughout the day.
[edit] Terrorism
During 1939 a number of bombs were put in postboxes by the IRA as part of their S-Plan campaign. When the IRA bombed the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester, UK in 1996 [1] just about the only thing that survived unscathed was a Victorian pillar box dating from 1887 (A type B Jubilee pillar).
[edit] Colours
- Australia — red (Express Post — yellow )
- Belgium — red
- Canada — red with grey footings; storage bins are grey
- China — green
- Cyprus — yellow
- Czech Republic — orange
- France — yellow
- Germany — yellow
- Guernsey (British Channel Islands) — light blue, from 1969-2003 they were Royal Blue
- Since 1969, when responsibility for mail was devolved from the British Post Office.
- Hong Kong — turquoise-green with purple bases; prior to 1997 they were red
- India — red
- Ireland — green
- Some postboxes date from pre-1922 and still carry the logo of a British Monarch. All postboxes, except two in the National Museum of Ireland, whether new or old, are painted green.
- Italy — Red for domestic mail and Blue for AirMail
- Japan — red
- Jersey (British Channel Islands) — red
- Colour unchanged when responsibility for mail was devolved from the British Post Office in 1969.
- Netherlands — red (though since 2006 these are getting replaced by new orange ones, due to changes in the national postal service)
- Norway — red
- Poland — red
- Portugal — red (blue are used for swift mail, designated 'Correio Azul')
- Spain — red
- Sweden — yellow (blue are used for short distance mail)
- Thailand — red
- United Kingdom — red
- Standard post boxes have been painted red since 1874. (Prior to 1859 there was no standard colour although there is evidence that, sometimes, the lettering and Royal cypher were picked out in gold. In 1859, a bronze green colour became standard until 1874. It took ten years for every box to be repainted during this period).
- United States — dark blue; relay boxes are olive green
[edit] Symbols
- Australia — a styled red letter "P" on a white circle, "P" standing for "Post"
- Germany — a horn, such as the postman sounds to announce his coming.
- Ireland — From 1922 the Irish harp entwined with the letters "SE" for Saorstát Éireann, then "P7T" Gaelic script for Post & Telegraphs and from 1984 An Post with their wavy lines logo, often on the door as a raised casting.
- Japan — a "T" with another bar above it (〒)
- United Kingdom All post boxes for use in the United Kingdom display the Royal Cipher of the reigning monarch at the time of manufacture. Exceptions are the Anonymous pillar boxes of 1879-87, where the cipher was ommitted, and all boxes for use in Scotland manufactured after 1952 (including replicas of the 1866 Penfold design) which show the Queen's Crown of Scotland instead of the English/Welsh cipher for Elizabeth II. This is because Elizabeth I reigned in England before the Act of Union of 1707 which united Scotland with England and therefore the present Queen is the first Elizabeth to be Queen of Scotland. Private boxes emptied by Royal Mail do not have to carry a cipher. Royal Mail postboxes manufactured since 1994 carry the wording "Royal Mail", normally above the aperture (lamp boxes) or on the door (pillar boxes). Before this date all post boxes, with the exception of the Anonymous pillar boxes, carried the wording "Post Office".
- United States — the United States Postal Service eagle logo, except that boxes for Express Mail use the USPS Express Mail logo
[edit] Gallery of Post Boxes from around the world
 British Post Box in front of Mansfield College, Oxford |
 French Post Box at Ile de Bréhat |
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 Icelandic Post Box |
 Post Box of Indian Postal Service |
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 Japanese Post Box at the Osaka Central Post Office |
 U.S. Post Box in front of the Post Office in Conneaut, Ohio |
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 Post box incorporated into a Type K4 telephone kiosk, introduced in 1927. 10 survive in the UK of this design by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott which also incorporates two stamp vending machines. This red telephone box is in Warrington, Cheshire, England |
 A standard British lamp letter box mounted on a post in Menai Bridge, Anglesey, Wales |
 A Victorian wall box of the Second National Standard type dating from 1859, in Brough, Derbyshire, England |
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 A Guernsey Post Type C double pillar box. |
 A Victorian hexagonal red post box of the Penfold type manufactured in 1866 outside King's College, Cambridge(not the original location for this box). Traditionally UK post boxes carry the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina. |
 One of the 150 post boxes erected during the reign of King Edward VIII. |
 Self-Automated Machine and Postboxes of Singapore Post outside the Westmall Branch. |
 German mail box with an old Post horn with Flashs from the Deutsche Bundespost, up the new Post horn from Deutsche Post AG |
 A Polish Post Box |
 Swedish post box |
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 A post box in Funningur, Faroe Islands |
[edit] See also
- Post Office box, used for incoming mail
