Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Zip codes

Okay, another random question. (This all relates to one fic, I promise.)

Do European cities/countries, in particular Switzerland, have zip codes?

If I had to take a guess, I believe they do, because I think I recall mailing one with an international zip code.

But then, I got to thinking that I think
zip codes were invented by the US postal system, and so I didn't know. (I hope no one sees this as typical "US aggorance/superority" because that's not what it's intended as.) And I don't want to offend anyone with that comment, either. I'm sorry, my social cues have never been very good.

But anyway, I would like to know if other countries have zip codes. If they do, are they for cities or countries? Do they use them only internationally?

Thanks,
Sara

P.S. Thanks again for the answers to the Swiss chocolate question, and to Paul for the anthrax question

Hi Sara!

According to wiki the US introduced them in 1943, Germany did in 1941 and the UK might have been using them since the early 20th century.

They´re used by 117 nations as of 2003, including Europe (except Irland, but they want to, too).

Switzerland: 1964, 4-digit codes. There is also a wiki article on them, including spefic postal codees. I´ll link it when I get home

Hope this helps, Michael

EDIT: no with link:
ZIP Codes in Wikipedia

We call them post codes in Australia. the first number of the code usually indicates what state or territory the addressee is from.

For example my post code is 2195 the 2 means I'm from either New South Wales or the Australian Capital Territory. In my case I'm from New South Wales 2195 is not the postcode of Sydney, but rather my suburb which is south west of the CBD which is postal code 2001.

As a guide post codes begining with 3 indicates the state of Victoria, beginning with 7 indicates the state of Tasmania, 4 indicates Queensland, 6 indicates Western Australia, 5 indicates South Australia, 0 indicates that the person is from the Northern Territory and like mentioned before those from NSW or the ACT begin with a 2. Post Offices boxes have their own postal code as well here in Sydney they start with a 1.

For more information I've posted this link to Australia Post's webpage about post codes

Post Code Assignments

Here's the wikipedia article on Australian post codes whihc will probably help you more:

Post Codes in Australia

Post Codes in gerneral

Post Codes World Wide

Hope this helps!

I found a site that searches swiss postal codes (codes postaux). Swiss postal codes

It's very easy to use. You just have to type the name of the city or village in the box, click ok and wait for the results.

This may be too much information, but British postcodes (we never call them zip codes) are variable length strings of letters and numbers, not just numbers, usually split into two blocks and 5 to 8 characters long.

The first block identifies the region, the second a smaller area within the region. There's a lot of variation in the length because the first part is a remnant of a previous system, dating back to the 1920s or earlier, which had a lot of anomolies - the main one being that London areas got a direction (e.g. NW or S) and number, such as W1 or SW14, while everywhere else got a two or three letter code for the name of the town or whatever, usually followed by a number.

Much later Apparently the reason why things are so confusing is that the 1917 scheme ( sorry, not 1920s) built on the original scheme - which dates back to 1857 and only covered London! Even then London was so big, and had so many duplicated street names, that they had to split it into 10 zones to make the postal service work. Today there are twenty main zones just for London, each with loads of sub-zones. See the article here for the full details.

It's common to add the country you're sending your letters to, if your letter is suppossed to come across a border. I don't know if its absolutely necessary, but most people do.

You could either write

Name
Street
D-11111 City (for Germany)

(D is the international code for Germany, A is for Austia, CH for Switzerland)

or you write the name of the country below the whole adress.