FRANK'S COMPULSIVE GUIDE TO POSTAL ADDRESSES

México Brasil Portugal Canada Cuba China Ireland United Kingdom New Zealand Australia
Author:
Frank da Cruz
Columbia University
New York City
[email protected]

Last update:
Sun Jan 12 14:41:01 2003

Acknowledgements:
Mari Carmen Fonseca, Juan Castro, Patrick Decker (M�xico).
Fernando Cabral (Brazil).
Roberto Homs (Cuba),
Craig Hartnett (Canada),
Irineu de Assis (Bolivia, Paraguay, and Colombia),
Cord Wischh�fer, ISO 3166/MA-Secretariat (Europe & North Africa).
Gerhard Helle, First Secretary, Universal Postal Union, Berne.
Eduard Vopicka (The Czech Republic and Slovakia).
Xander Jansen, Gert Grenander, Abigail (The Netherlands).
John Klensin, Alexander Svensson (Germany).
Peter J. Russell (Italy).
Marjan Baće (The Former Yugoslavia).
Stewart Evans, Yateendra Joshi (India).
Graham Rhind (Australia).
Elizabeth Eggers, Ken Westmoreland (New Zealand).
Peter Reynolds (Nigeria).
Ken Westmoreland (Kenya).
Topi Linkala (Finland).

John Benton, Ross Chandler, Craig Cockburn, Peter Crabb-Wyke, David Levy, James Grinter, Ian Morrison, Shane Wilson, "George D", Hugh Dunne, David Goddard, Johannes Eggers, Christy Looby, Finlay Smith, Gerard Lardner, Robert Gormley, G.S. Sinclair, Chris Cooke, Colin Russ, Stewart Potter, Bill Bedford, Chris Harrison, P. Breathnach, Michael Everson, Mark Dyche, David Gowdy, Guy Burgess, Alan Berry, Ken Westmoreland, Jonathan Nigel, Peter Reynolds, Martin Spamer, Chris Davies, Benjamin Brundell, Mark Jolly, Liam McGee, William Wallace, Andy Paterson, Sarah Woodhouse (Britain and Ireland).

General information and corrections: Linda Beek, Dan Olsson, Peter Russell, Ken Westmoreland, Gert Grenander, Marcy Strawmyer, Mark Brader.

Disclaimer:
This document was written for internal use of the Kermit Project at Columbia University for business purposes and does not purport to be definitive, complete, systematic, unopinionated, or not USA-centric. The bulk of the text was written in 1996-98 and might be dated, especially in light of the recent appearance of new information on the websites of the postal authorities of different countries, much of which has yet to be assimilated. Comments and corrections welcome. Apologies for any inappropriate terminology, especially since this document aims to eradicate such usage. Format: Crude handmade HTML 1.0 containing some bare Latin-1 characters (properly announced).

The 14 November 2000 edition adds links to postal authorities in many countries, which are recapitulated alphabetically (in English) in APPENDIX II at the end. The 15 May 2001 edition adds ISO 3166-1 codes to the country list in Appendix II.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

This document tries to describe -- or invent when necessary -- conventions for addressing postal mail from within the USA to other countries that are both (a) effective (i.e. have a good chance of working), and (b) as inoffensive as possible when addressing choices might be controversial. Note that the general problem -- how to address mail from country A to country B, for all A's and B's -- is an n × n problem, of which this document attempts to address only one dimension: USA to all.

When this document was first written, the United States Postal Service (USPS) had no special guidelines for addressing international mail -- if it did, we'd have just used them. This included standard or recommended names for countries.

ISO International Standard 11180, "Postal Addressing" (1993), was no help at all, except that it contained a reference to the Universal Postal Union: 

http://www.upu.int/

which provides tip sheets for addressing mail to each country.

The situation has improved since then. A visit to the USPS website's "Postal Explorer": 

http://pe.usps.gov/

turns up the International Mail Manual (IMM), including an "index of countries and localities", first discovered (by me) in 2000. Unfortunately a URL can't be given, since everything occurs within frames and PDF readers at this site. Full citation: United States Postal Service, International Mail Manual, Issue 28, January 2003 (or later; updated periodically).

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

When addressing international mail, the most critical item is the country name, which must appear as the last line of the address, in all capital letters, with no accompanying notations, such as the postal code (reference: USPS publication "Address for Success"). In some countries (such as Canada; the situation in the USA is not known), postal sorting machines read and sort by the country name. Thus within each country, the country name list must be well-known and well standardized.

After the country line, the most important line is the one just above the country name, that shows the town, sometimes the state / province / county / district / land / shire / department / oblast / etc, and often a postal code to aid in automated sorting. We will call this the "City Line".

Each country has its own format for the City Line. Usually it is one of the following (punctuation shown in the Format column is to be taken literally):

Format Examples
town, province postalcode M�xico, China, India
town province   postalcode USA, Canada, Australia
postalcode town-province Brazil
postalcode town (region)     Italy
postalcode town Most other European countries & ex-USSR
town   postalcode Israel, Thailand, Japan, Singapore
town, province Ireland (except Dublin)
town Hong Kong, Syria

In the formats above, "province" stands for whatever each country calls its subdivisions (e.g. "county" in Ireland), and often is abbreviated according to local postal standards.

In some countries (like the USA and Canada) the province (state, county, etc) is necessary, in others it is omitted, and in others (e.g. England) it is either optional, or needed in some cases but omitted in others. In some countries (Ireland) punctuation must be used in the City Line, but in others (like the USA, Canada, and Australia), it should not be used.

The postal authorities of the USA, Canada, and UK (and perhaps other countries) all recommend that the City Line be written in all uppercase.

Postal codes, in countries that have them, are usually numeric, sometimes containing a space or a hyphen. Most European postal codes have an alphabetic prefix, denoting the country, separated by a hyphen (such as DK-1234 in Denmark). Canadian and UK postal codes contain mixtures of digits and letters. In most countries where the postal code is on the right, we separate it by two (2) spaces (unless it is very short, as in "Dublin 4").

The 2-space separation is no longer recommended by the US Postal Service for USA addresses, but it is still proper for (e.g.) addresses in Canada. In any case it should do no harm, especially since other countries (such as Canada) specify two spaces even in USA addresses (See the Canadian Addressing Guide link below).

When sending mail within the USA, of course we omit the country name. For all other countries, we write the country name as the last line, all uppercase, by itself. We use country names consistently; they are listed in Appendix II. Postal codes never go on the country line (Authority: USPS National ZIP Code Directory, "International Addresses").

When sending international mail:

  1. The Country Line must be understandable by the USPS. Therefore, use the English name of the country (Appendix II), not the local name, e.g. use GERMANY, not DEUTSCHLAND.

  2. The City Line must be understandable by both the USPS and the postal authorities in the destination country. When the town, state/province/county/district, and/or country has an English name different from the real name (such as Cologne for K�ln in Germany, or Prague for Praha in the Czech Republic, or Copenhagen for K�benhavn in Denmark, or The Hague for Den Haag in the Netherlands), use the English name because English-speaking US Postal Service people are the ones who must read the address and decide which airplane to put the mail on. If desired, you can also write the name in local notation above the (English) City Line. Example: 

    ABC Holding B.V.
Marijkestraat 11
NL-2518 BG Den Haag
The Hague
NETHERLANDS

  3. The lines above the City Line must be understandable by the post office of the destination country. So don't attempt to translate the more specific parts of the address. For example, in a Polish address, don't change "Ulica Piotrowa" in Krak�w to "Peter's Street", since the Krak�w post office is the one that cares about the street.

When sending mail to Russia, Israel, Greece, Armenia, China, etc, it is perfectly acceptable to write the lines above the City Line in the native script. According to the USPS IMM, it is also OK to write the City Line in the native script, but it must also be written in English below the native script and above the Country Line. Obviously if you don't have a way to write the address in Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, etc, it can be transliterated in whatever way is most acceptable at the receiving end. Most countries that use non-Roman writing systems can deliver letters that are addressed in Roman transliteration -- Russia, Greece, Israel, most Arab countries, Japan, Korea, and both Chinas among them.

If you can print accented Roman letters, all the better. If you can't, leave off the accents or transliterate according to language-specific rules (as in German "�" to "ae" -- see section on Germany).

Write addresses with the most specific item on top (usually the person's name), proceeding to the least specific item (the City Line or the Country Line) on the bottom. This is how the USPS expects mail to be addressed, even though it is opposite of the conventions used in some countries like Russia, which does it the other way around.

Never put "ATTN: person's name" or other bureaucratic notations below the City or Country Line. This can prevent the mail from being delivered, or can slow it down. (Personally, I think notations like ATTN are useless -- if you have addressed the mail to a person, then of course it is for their attention.)

THE USA

Address format is: 

town ST nnnnn-nnnn

where ST is the official USPS 2-letter state abbreviation (from the table below) with no comma preceding it, followed by the ZIP or ZIP+4. Examples: 

OSHKOSH WI 54901                      (5-digit ZIP)
FRANKLIN SQUARE NY 11010              (5-digit ZIP)
NEW YORK NY 10025-7799                (ZIP+4)
FORT RICHARDSON AK 99505-5700         (ZIP+4)

Uppercase is used in the City Line, as recommended by the USPS, for ease of automatic scanning and application of bar codes.

Some useful information on USA addresses can be found at the USPS Website: 

http://www.usps.gov/

And you can look up ZIP codes at: 

http://www.framed.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html

And here: 

http://www.afd.co.uk/ZipNet/Default.htm

And of course also in the USPS ZIP Code Directory books.

Don't spell out state names or use old-fashioned state abbreviations for them like "Ala", "Miss", or "N.Y.". Here is the table of states and other postal entities of the USA with their official 2-letter abbreviations (source: USPS National ZIP Code Directory) that are recognized by the USPS and its postal sorters:

AL Alabama IN Indiana ND North Dakota
AK Alaska IA Iowa OH Ohio
AS American Samoa KS Kansas OK Oklahoma
AZ Arizona KY Kentucky OR Oregon
AR Arkansas LA Louisiana PW Palau
AA Armed Forces Americas ME Maine PA Pennsylvania
AE Armed Forces Europe MH Marshall Islands PR Puerto Rico
AP Armed Forces Pacific MD Maryland RI Rhode Island
CA California MA Massachusetts SC South Carolina
CO Colorado MI Michican SD South Dakota
CT Connecticut MN Minnesota TN Tennessee
DE Delaware MS Mississippi TX Texas
DC District of Columbia MO Missouri VI US Virgin Islands
FM Federated Micronesia MT Montana UT Utah
FL Florida MP N. Mariana Islands VT Vermont
GA Georgia NE Nebraska VA Virginia
GU Guam NV Nevada WA Washington
HI Hawaii NJ New Jersery WV West Virginia
NH New Hampshire NM New Mexico WI Wisconsin
ID Idaho NY New York WY Wyoming
IL Illinois NC North Carolina

CANADA

The Canada address format is like the USA format: 

town province  postalcode

(no commas or other punctuation). Upper case is preferred but not required except in postal codes. Canada has 2-letter abbreviations for its provinces and territories, just like we have for our states, and which do not conflict with ours:

Symbol English Name French Name
AB Alberta Alberta
BC British Columbia Colombie-Britannique
MB Manitoba Manitoba
NB New Brunswick Nouveau-Brunswick
NL (3) Newfoundland and Labrador Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador
NT Northwest Territories Territoires du Nord-Ouest
NS Nova Scotia Nouvelle-�cosse
NU (1) Nunavut Nunavut
ON Ontario Ontario
PE Prince Edward Island �le-du-Prince-�douard
QC (2) Quebec Qu�bec
SK Saskatchewan Saskatchewan
YT Yukon Yukon

Notes:

  1. On 1 April 1999, Northwest Territories split in two. The new (eastern) half is called Nunavut and the western half is still called Northwest Territories (not "Bob"). Until 12 December 2000 Nunavut's province symbol was NT; after that it became NU (but NT should still work, and in fact is still listed in many places as the official symbol for Nunavut). For further information on Nunavut see: 

    http://www.nunavut.com/basicfacts/english/basicfacts_1territory.html

  2. Prior to 1993 or '94 the symbol was PQ.

  3. In December 2001, the province of Newfoundland was renamed to Newfoundland and Labrador. Effective 21 October 2002, NL is recognized as the symbol for the renamed province. The previous symbol, NF, can be used until six months after that, after which time only NL will be accepted. CLICK HERE for the news release; CLICK HERE for questions and answers; CLICK HERE for commentary.

Canadian postal codes are always LNL NLN (Letter, Number, Letter, Space, Number, Letter, Number). (In this context, "Number" means "Digit".) The first segment is the Forward Sortation Area; the second is the Local Delivery Unit. The postal code is placed two spaces to the right of the province/territory abbreviation. All letters in the City Line (and preferably the entire address) should be uppercase. Examples: 

        
CALGARY AB  T2H 1M5
MOOSE JAW SK  S6H 2X1
ST LAURENT QC  H4N 1J7
MISSISSAUGA ON  L5K 1Z8
YELLOW KNIFE NT X1A 2P7
TALOYOAK NU  X0E 1B0
NORTH POLE NT  H0H 0H0    <-- ("Ho Ho Ho")

The city or town name must not be translated. If the official name of the municipality is French, it must be written in French including accents; if it is English, it must be written in English. Canadian postal policies emphasize equal treatment of English and French, but they do not mention other languages of Canada such as Inuktitut, Cree, Lakota, Micmac, Ojibwa, etc. I assume that locality names must be written in Roman letters and not Canadian Syllabics, although I could not find any statements to that effect at the Canada Post website. In Nunavut, Inuktitut is the official language of government and road signs are in both Roman and Syllabics -- what about mail?

Links:

Canadian postal humor: "Canada Post doesn't really charge 32 cents for a stamp. It's 2 cents for postage and 30 cents for storage." (Gerald Regan, Cabinet Minister, 31 Dec 1983 Financial Post)

M�XICO

For purposes of addressing mail from within the USA, the name of the country is MEXICO. In Spanish, the 'e' has an acute accent: M�xico. In Spain and parts of Latin America, some people prefer the more phonetic spelling, "M�jico" (just as in the USA, some Texans prefer to write "Tejas").

M�xico has states (estados) like Jalisco, Sonora, etc, which are included in the address. The state for M�xico City is DF (Distrito Federal = Federal District), similar to Washington DC in the USA. (DF is divided into Delegaciones including M�xico City, San Jer�nimo, etc.)

Postal codes are 5 digits. Examples: 

M�xico, DF  03100                    (full form)
San Jer�nimo, DF  10200              (full form)
Zacatenco  07000                     (state unknown)
Culiacan, SIN                        (postal code unknown)
Cuernavaca, MOR  62000               (full form)
Ciudad Obregon, SON  85100           (full form)

The states of M�xico and their official abbreviations are:

AGS Aguascalientes MOR Morelos
BCN Baja California Norte NAY Nayarit
BCS Baja California Sur NL Nuevo Le�n
CAM Campeche OAX Oaxaca
CHIS Chiapas PUE Puebla
CHIH Chihuahua QRO Quer�taro
COAH Coahuila QROO Quintana Roo
COL Colima SLP San Luis Potos�
DF Distrito Federal SIN Sinaloa
DGO Durango SON Sonora
GTO Guanajuato TAB Tabasco
GRO Guerrero TAMPS Tamaulipas
HGO Hidalgo TLAX Tlaxcala
JAL Jalisco VER Veracruz
MEX M�xico (Estado de) YUC Yucat�n
MICH Michoac�n ZAC Zacatecas

It is important to put "Calle" for Street and "Colonia" for District (when known) in Mexican addresses, for example: 

(Person's Name)
Calle Ave. Castillo Chapultepec No.47
Colonia Cd.Chapultepec
Cuernavaca, MOR  62380
MEXICO

("Cd" is the abbreviation for Ciudad = City)

References:

BRAZIL

Brazilian addresses have states (estados) and a 5+3-digit postal code that goes on the left. The state goes on the right, separated by a dash. There should be no other punctuation. Example: 

20071-003 Rio de Janeiro-RJ

If a postal code has only 5 digits (like our own ZIP without the "plus 4"), add "-000" to the end: 

01000-000 S�o Paulo-SP

The state for Brasilia is DF (Distrito Federal), like Washington DC, e.g.: 

70084-970 Brasilia-DF

Always use the exact spacing and punctuation shown above -- no periods, commas, etc. Never include "CEP" in the address; it just means "postal code". For example, if you have an address like: 

Rio de Janeiro, RJ CEP 20071-003

it should be written as: 

20071-003 Rio de Janeiro-RJ

The states of Brazil and their official abbreviations are:

AC Acre PB Para�ba
AL Alagoas PA Par�
AP Amap� PE Pernambuco
AM Amazonas PI Piau�
BA Bah�a RN Rio Grande do Norte
CE Cear� RS Rio Grande do Sul
DF Distrito Federal RJ Rio de Janeiro
ES Espirito Santo RO Rond�nia
GO Goi�s RR Roraima
MA Maranh�o SC Santa Catarina
MT Mato Grosso SE Sergipe
MS Mato Grosso do Sul SP S�o Paulo
MG Minas Gera�s TO Tocantins
PR Paran�

References:

CUBA

Cuban addresses are written like this: 

Sr. H�ctor Garc�a Mariz�
Reina #35, apt. 4a, e/ Gervasio y Escobar
Ciudad de La Habana, CP 11900
CUBA

where: 

Reina #35 = street and number
apt. 4a   = apartment number
e/        = between streets Gervasio and Escobar
CP        = C�digo Postal (postal code)

After this line may be the Reparto (zone) and Municipio; that is, minor divisions, for example: 

Sr. Jorge P�rez Rodr�guez
Calle Mart� #24, apt. 4a., e/ Coromb� y 26 de Julio
Rpto. Abel Santamar�a, Aguacate
Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba, CP 22222
CUBA

that is: 

Person
street / number, apartment, between streets
Reparto, Pueblo
Municipio, Provincia, Postal Code
CUBA

"esq." (esquina, corner) can be used instead of "e/" (between) when the house is on the corner, for example: 

Calle Mart� #24, apt. 4a., esq. Coromb�

In practice the CP is rarely used and mail, if otherwise properly addressed, can be delivered without it.

The divisions of Cuba are:

Provincia -> Municipio -> Ciudad or Pueblo -> Reparto or Barrio

Note that this scheme does not apply to Ciudad de La Habana, which is a Provincia. There are many Municipios without Ciudad or Pueblo; for example, Ciudad de La Habana has these general options:

Ciudad de La Habana -> Municipio -> Pueblo -> Reparto or Barrio
Ciudad de La Habana -> Municipio -> Reparto or Barrio

And for Municipio Especial Isla de la Juventud, the scheme is:

Municipio Especial Isla de la Juventud -> Ciudad o Pueblo -> Reparto o Barrio

The Provincias, with their recommended abbreviations, are:

PR Pinar del R�o CA Ciego de Avila
CH Ciudad de La Habana CG Camag�ey
HA La Habana LT Las Tunas
MT Matanzas HO Holgu�n
VC Villa Clara GR Granma
CF Cienfuegos SC Santiago de Cuba
SS Sancti Sp�ritus GT Guant�namo
IJ Municipio Especial Isla de la Juventud

Municipio Especial Isla de la Juventud is a special municipio; that is, not a provincia, but treated as a provincia.

OTHER LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES

Most other Latin American countries seem to (a) not require a state or province in the address, and (b) put the postal code (if they have them) on the right. Examples: 

Bahia Blanca 8000   ARGENTINA
Santiago 9          CHILE
Bogota              COLOMBIA
Nival 4             GUATEMALA
Asuncion 2968       PARAGUAY
Lima 34             PERU
Montevideo 11000    URUGUAY
Caracas 1010-A      VENEZUELA

References:

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Australia uses the same address format as the USA and Canada. It has 4-digit numeric postal codes and the following states, always abbreviated in caps as follows:

Abbrev Full Name Postboxes and
Large Users 		Street Addresses
ACT Australian Capital Territory 0200-0299 2600-2639
NSW New South Wales 1000-1999 2000-2599, 2640-2914
NT Northern Territory 0900-0999 0800-0899
QLD Queensland 9000-9999 4000-4999
SA South Australia 5000-5799 5800-5999
TAS Tasmania 7800-7999 7000-7499
VIC Victoria 8000-8999 3000-3999
WA Western Australia 6800-6999 6000-6799

NSW includes Norfolk Island; WA includes Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Island. Write Australian addresses as:

  town state postal-code (no comma, state is in caps)

Examples: 

Canberra ACT  2614    AUSTRALIA
Sydney NSW  2000      AUSTRALIA

Within Western Australia lies a small area calling itself the Hutt River Province Principality, which seceded from Western Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia in 1970 over a wheat-quota dispute. Whatever its legal and international standing, it has no listing in the USPS International Mail Manual, so mail from the USA to that area must be addressed "via Northampton WA 6535" in Australia. For further info, search the Web for "Hutt River".

New Zealand also uses 4-digit postal codes but they are relatively optional, used mainly for presorting bulk mail. One peculiarity of NZ addresses is the use of "suburb name" in addresses in Greater Auckland, as in: 

J.P. Smith
6-123 Great South Rd
Owairaka
Auckland  1003
NEW ZEALAND

(Owairaka is the suburb name.) Also note that "6/123" means Flat 6 at 123 Great South Road. The following address, however, is in downtown Auckland and so does not have a suburb. 

NZI Life
3 Shortland St
Auckland  1001
NEW ZEALAND

NZ has PO Boxes, and they also have something special called "Private Bag": 

Rt Hon Helen Clarke
Leader of the Opposition
Parliament
Private Bag
Wellington  6020
NEW ZEALAND

Sometimes the private bag has a number: 

New Zealand Post Limited
Operations Post
Corporate Office
Private Bag 39 990
Wellington 1
NEW ZEALAND

The single-digit postal code in this case is an old form ("1" means central city, "5" denotes eastern suburbs, etc); these have been superseded by 4-digit codes, but might still be seen occasionally.

Ken Westmoreland reports that New Zealand also has a system called Rural Delivery (similar to Rural Routes in Canada). Hence: 

Mr C Campbell
Railway Road
RD10
Palmerston North 5321

The last two digits of NZ postcodes denote the mode of delivery. To take Palmerston North as an example: 

5301 Street Delivery
5315 PO Box
5320 Private Bag
5321 Rural Delivery

References:

MOST OF EUROPE

(The UK and Ireland have their own sections towards the end of this document.)

European Postal Organization

Most European countries write the postal code on the left, preceded by an alphabetic country code and a dash, and then the town/city on the right. Postal code formats are as follows (n means a digit, 0-9, L means a letter):

Austria AT-nnnn Iceland IS-nnn
Belgium BE-nnnn Italy I-nnnnn
Cyprus CY-nnnn (1) Luxembourg LU-nnnn
Czech Republic CZ-nnn nn Netherlands NL-nnnn LL
Denmark DK-nnnn Norway NO-nnnn
Estonia EE-nnnn Poland PL-nnn nn
Faroe Islands FO-nnn (2) Portugal PT-nnnn-nnn (3)
Finland FIN-nnnnn (7) Romania RO-nnnn
France FR-nnnnn (6) Spain ES-nnnnn (4)
Germany DE-nnnnn Sweden SE-nnn nn
Greece GR-nnn nn Switzerland CH-nnnn
Greenland DK-nnnn (2) Yugoslavia YU-nnnnn (5)
Hungary HU-nnnn

Notes:

  1. Mail to northern Cyrprus must be addressed to "Mersin 10, TURKEY", Mersin being the neighbouring Turkish province, with the "10" implying that Cyprus is its tenth county. Southern Cyprus can be addressed directly, e.g. "CY-1900 Nicosia".
  2. Faroe Islands / Faeroe Islands / F�roya postcodes are three digits and separate from those of Denmark, of which it is (officially!) part, hence "FO-100 T�rshavn". Greenland is still part of the Danish postcode system, hence DK-3900 Nuuk.
  3. New 7-digit codes replaced 4-digit codes in 2000.
  4. Spain controls five places of sovereignty (plazas de soberania) on or near the coast of Morocco - the coastal enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco contests, as well as the islands of Pe�on de Alhucemas, Pe�on de Velez de la Gomera, and Islas Chafarinas. Mail from the USA to Pe�on de Alhucemas can be addressed to ALHUCEMAS. For Gibraltar, see the the UK section. Spain also owns a town, Ll&iacu;via, that is located inside France.
  5. This notation is being phased out; it is still used by ISO but the USPS calls this country SERBIA-MONTENEGRO.
  6. France still owns a tiny piece of North America, the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (Michelon), just south of Newfoundland. Mark Brader points out: "It's the only place I know of in North America where, if you go east from any part of it until you enter a different time zone, you put your watch back; certainly the only one where you put it back half an hour. SP&M uses zone -3; the island of Newfoundland, which has a southward peninsula east of SP&M, uses -3:30." If I'm not mistaken, this was also the only part of eastern North America controlled by an Axis power in World War II, until it was liberated by General De Gaulle (who some decades later also tried to liberate Québec :-)   Postal access unknown. Quiz Question 1: What other parts of North America were controlled by Axis powers in World War II?
  7. From Topi Linkala: "The reason to use FIN- instead of FI- is that items posted outside Europe and North America tend to go to Fiji Island instead to Finland when FI is used. The post of Fiji Island forwards misrouted mail to Finland in excess of hundreds of kilos each day and this becomes very costly." Reference: http://www.posti.fi/yksityis/ulkomaille/ohjeet/merkinnat.html.

The country abbreviations originally used in postal codes were not ISO 3166 abbreviations, but rather "car (or road) distinguishing signs", from an annex to the 1949/68 United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic, adopted in part by the the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), applying to European countries and to some Mediterranean countries in Africa. These codes were not accepted by the Universal Postal Union as a world standard, but were widely used anyway. Since 1994, usage was supposed to migrate to ISO 3166 Alpha-2 codes, but reportedly has not proceeded to any great extent outside of Scandinavia.

Country ISO Alpha 2-Code CEPT-code Remarks
Austria AT A  
Belgium BE B  
Croatia HR HR HR = Republika Hrvatska
Cyprus CY ??  
Denmark DK DK  
Estonia EE EE  
Finland FI FIN See Note 7 above. Was SF (Suomi Finland).
France FR F  
Germany DE D  
Great Britain GB GB Not used in postal addresses
Greece GR GR  
Hungary HU H  
Ireland IE IRL Not used in postal addresses
Italy IT I  
Latvia LV LV  
Liechtenstein LI FL  
Luxembourg LU L  
Monaco MC MC Shares numeric codes with France
Netherlands NL NL  
Norway NO N  
Poland PL PL  
Portugal PT P  
Romania RO RO  
Russia RU RU  
Slovak Republic SK SK  
Slovenia SI SI Was SLO
Spain ES E  
Sweden SE S  
Switzerland CH CH CH = Confœderatio Helvetica
Turkey TR TR  
Yugoslavia YU YU (See note 5 above)

References:

ITALY

In Italy the Provincia abbreviation, which denotes the nearest city or large town, goes in parentheses after the city as a 2-letter abbreviation: 

I-57023 Cecina (LI)                 ITALY
I-50016 S. Domenico di Fiesole (FI) ITALY
I-20041 Agrate Brianza (MI)         ITALY
I-38014 Gardolo (TN)                ITALY
I-20064 Gorgonzola (MI)             ITALY
I-20010 San Pietro All'Olmo (MI)    ITALY

The Provincia notation is not actually needed for delivery (which is based on postal code) but is commonly used nevertheless so readers of an address can have an idea of the location. Also note that Province and Regioni are not the same. For example, in: 

GE Fanuc Automation Italia S.r.l 
Largo Brugnatelli - Angolo Via Volta
I-20090 BUCCINASCO (MI)
ITALY

the town of Buccinasco is near Milano, which is in the Provincia of Milano and the Regione of Lombardia. Regioni are not used in postal addresses.

By the way, Italy surrounds at least two other small countries: Vatican City and San Marino, which are properly treated by the USPS as separate countries -- VATICAN CITY and SAN MARINO (Authority: USPS IMM Index of Countries and Localities) -- and by some accounts also a third, the Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta, or Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), consisting of a single building on a Roman street, the Palace of Malta in the Via dei Condotti 68 (you're probably better off using the Roman street address).

Not only are countries to be found inside Italy, but a piece of Italy can be found inside another country: Campione d'Italia in Switzerland on Lake Lugano. It chose to stay part of Lombardy, and hence Italy, when Ticino became a Swiss Canton in 1798. It uses the Swiss postcode CH-6911, the Swiss telephone code +41 91, and has Italian police driving in Swiss-registered automobiles. But it's Italy. (Also see the section on Germany, another country with a piece inside Switzerland.)

References:

THE NETHERLANDS

In the NETHERLANDS, a 2-letter delivery code follows the numeric part of the postal code -- this is not a state/province abbreviation, just an indication of a "subzone" within the area indicated by the number. The four-digit number never begins with 0; the subzone letters never include F, I, O, Q, U, or Y, or the combinations SA, SD, and SS. Examples: 

NL-3514 BN Utrecht         NETHERLANDS
NL-3563 AW Utrecht         NETHERLANDS
NL-6500 HB Nijmegen        NETHERLANDS
NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam       NETHERLANDS
NL-3000 DR Rotterdam       NETHERLANDS

Don't refer to the Netherlands as Holland. Holland is only one part of the Netherlands. "Dutch" is another misnomer -- it really means "German", but in English we don't have any other word that REALLY means Dutch... Postbus means PO Box.

The provinces of the Netherlands are generally not used in postal addresses, but in case it's ever of any use, here is the list, also showing some well-known towns:

English Dutch Abbr Towns
Drenthe Drenthe DR  
Flevoland Flevoland FLD  
Friesland Friesland FR  
Gelderland Gelderland GLD Apeldorn, Arnhem, Nijmegen
Groningen Groningen GN  
Lemburg Limburg LB  
North Brabant Noord-Brabant NB Eindhoven, Breda
North Holland Noord-Holland NH Amsterdam, Haarlem
Overijssel Overijssel OV  
South Holland Zuid-Holland ZH Rotterdam, Leiden, Dordrecht, the Hague
Utrecht Utrecht UT  
Zeeland Zeeland ZLD  

Diversion: CLICK HERE to read about Dutch enclaves in Belgium, and Belgian enclaves in the Netherlands, Dutch enclaves inside Belgian enclaves, etc etc.

References:

GERMANY

German postal codes are five digits prefixed by "DE-" (for Deutschland, formerly just "D"). Prior to July 1, 1993, East and West Germany had separate and conflicting 4-digit codes prefixed by "O-" and "D-" ("D-" became "W-" in the period between reunification and the new 5-digit system). All the German addresses in all the databases in the world had to be converted in 1993.

You can look up German postal codes here: 

http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dienste/plz.html

or in Frank's copy of the Deutsche Bundespost Postleitzahlenbuch ( onsite only :-)

Also note the following transliteration rules for German, to be used in cases where you can't print the special German characters: 

Vowel with Umlaut (like �)  =>  Vowel followed by "e" (like ae), e.g. K�ln => Koeln
German sharp s (�)          =>  ss (e.g. Stra�e [street] => Strasse)

Before the end of the Second World War, parts of what are now the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and other countries were German. Old addresses referring to German town names such as Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), Danzig (now Gdansk in Poland), Pre�burg (now Bratislava in Slovakia), Budweis (now Ceskě Budijovice in the Czech Republic), Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic), Königsberg (now Kaliningrad in Russia), etc, obviously must be adjusted.

In the postal oddities department, Ken Westmoreland reports on Germany's enclave in Switzerland: "Mail can be sent via Germany to D-78266 Büsingen, or via Switzerland to CH-8238 Büsingen: 

  http://www.borderlandtv.com/photos_1.html

This must be the only place in the world that is part of two countries' postcode systems. Interestingly, while France and Spain operate postal services side by side in Andorra, neither have postcodes for the Principality." (Also see the section on Italy for more countries or pieces of countries inside of other countries).

References:

THE FORMER CZECHOSLOVAKIA

As of October 1993, Czechoslovakia split (amicably) into two countries: The Czech Republic (containing Prague, Brno, Plzn, etc), and the Slovak Republic (containing Bratislava). The new postal codes are as follows: 

CZ 1?? ??     CZ 3?? ??       CZ 6?? ??       SK 9?? ??
CZ 2?? ??     CZ 4?? ??       CZ 7?? ??       SK 0?? ??
CZ 2?? ??     CZ 5?? ??       SK 8?? ??

Prague and some of the other Czech cities also put district numbers after the city name. Examples: 

CZ-602 00 Brno                  CZECH REPUBLIC
CZ-370 06 Ceske Budejovice      CZECH REPUBLIC
CZ-547 01 Nachod                CZECH REPUBLIC
CZ-130 00 Prague 3              CZECH REPUBLIC
CZ-763 14 Zlin 12               CZECH REPUBLIC
SK-8?? ?? Bratislava            SLOVAK REPUBLIC

References:

THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

What was once Yugoslavia has broken up into the following countries, some of which continue to have tense relationships -- don't mix them up!

Country Code Some cities or towns in the new country
Bosnia-Herzegovina BA Sarajevo, Tuzla
Croatia HR Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Medari
Macedonia MK Skopje
Serbia-Montenegro YU Belgrade, Novi Sad (Serbia); Kotor (Montenegro) Pristina (Kosovo).
Slovenia SI Ljubljana, Novo Mesto, Litija, Slovenj Gradec

"Bosnia and Herzegovina" sounds like two countries but really is one, since the war in Bosnia, with three parts: a Serbian part (Republika Srpska), a Croation part, and a Muslim part. It has 5-digit postal codes: 

BA-71000 Sarajevo         BOSNIA-HERZOGOVINA

The Repupblics of Serbia and Montenegro together form a "super-country" which they call, controversially, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (or at least that's what they called it until recently), and which the USPS calls SERBIA-MONTENEGRO. Serbia, in turn, contains a Muslim part called Kosovo, but it is not addressed separately. As far as I know, the YU postal-code prefix is still used: 

YU-11000 Belgrade         SERBIA-MONTENEGRO

Slovenia uses the SI prefix (although SLO has also been seen): 

SI-61000 Ljubljana        SLOVENIA

Croatia uses the HR (Hrvatska) prefix: 

HR-10000 Zagreb           CROATIA
HR-21001 Split            CROATIA
HR-55432 Medari           CROATIA

I don't know about the others.

Also, be aware that Macedonia is another controversial name, claimed also by Greece. And note that usage of Cyrillic versus Latin alphabet is in flux. Croatian in written with Latin letters; Serbian can be written with Cryillic or Latin. Macedonian was written in Cyrillic; I'm not sure if it still is.

References:

THE FORMER USSR

Now consists of the following new (or old) countries: 

ARMENIA         KAZAKHSTAN          RUSSIA
AZERBAIJAN      KYRGYZSTAN          TAJIKISTAN
BELARUS         LATVIA              TURKMENISTAN
ESTONIA         LITHUANIA           UKRAINE
GEORGIA         MOLDOVA             UZBEKISTAN

These are the preferred names. See Appendix II.

Most of these countries write addresses backwards from how we write them, e.g. with country name on top, the city line as the second line, the street line next, and finally the person. When addressing mail to these countries, write addresses in the normal USA order, because the USPS looks at the bottom of the address, not the top, for the city line and country name.

A piece of Russia, the Kaliningradskaya Oblast', lies on the Baltic coast, about 500km west of "contiguous Russia", with Latvia, Lithuania, and Belarus in between, and sharing a border with Poland. The city of Kaliningrad is the former Königsberg, once capital of East Prussia and later part of Germany, and was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1945, becoming the USSR's only Baltic port. It remains Russia's only Baltic port. Government addresses are listed as: 

  Person's name
  City Hall
  Pl. Pobedy 1
  RU-236 040 Kaliningrad
  RUSSIA

However, since Kaliningrad is cut off from the rest of Russia, it is not clear to me how the mail is delivered, given the new difficulties with visas, access, etc.

Another piece of Russia, the villages of Sankova and Medvezhe, lies inside Belarus.

Links:

Although the Cyrillic alphabet was used throughout most of the Soviet Union, some of the former Soviet republics are converting to Roman or Arabic script. Georgia and Armenia each have their own unique script.

THE TWO CHINAS

Don't mix them up. The Peoples Republic of China is the big one. The Republic of China (ROC) is the little one, also known as Taiwan or (a long time ago) Formosa (from when it was a Portuguese colony).

The USPS IMM lists only the short names, CHINA and TAIWAN. It does not recognize Peoples Republic or Republic as part of the country name. This appears to be a general rule (which is proved by several exceptions).

The Peoples Republic of China has provinces like Shanxi, and address are written like this: 

Wuhan, Hubei                 CHINA (postal code unknown)
Taiyuan, Shanxi              CHINA (ditto)
Hangzhou, Zhejiang  310027   CHINA (full address line)
Beijing 100081               CHINA (big city)
Shanghai 200052              CHINA (ditto)

Republic of China addresses go like this: 

Taipei  10636                TAIWAN
Hsin-Chu  31015              TAIWAN

The provinces of Peoples China include: 

Anhui             Henan         Jilin         Sichuan
Fujian            Hubei         Liaoning      Xingjiang Uygur
Guangdong         Hunan         Qinghai       Xizang
Guanxi Zhuangzu   Jiangsu       Shandong      Yunnan
Guizhou           Jiangxi       Shanxi        Zhejiang

Note that there has been a big "spelling reform" (for Romanization of Chinese names) in Peoples China but not in the ROC. The provinces listed above are in the new spelling. Some examples: 

Old: Peking          New:  Beijing
     Szechuan              Sichuan
     Mao Tse Tung          Mao Zedong

For postal purposes, Tibet is a province of China called Xizang, but this is a very touchy political issue.

The proper addressing for Hong Kong after July 1, 1997, is not yet known, but prior addresses should still work, e.g.: 

(Name)
(Company)
10/F Tower One,
Cheung Sha Wan Plaza
Kowloon
HONG KONG

Hong Kong is still listed in the USPS IMM, and in fact (as of January 2003) Hong Kong Post still lists its own address as: 

HongkongPost Headquarters
2 Connaught Place
Central
HONG KONG

References:

SINGAPORE

Singapore is a bit unusual in that it is a city that is also a country. And it has postal codes. Logically we would write addresses like this: 

Person's Name
National University of Singapore
Dept of Info Systems and Computer Science
Lower Kent Ridge Road
SINGAPORE  119081

But the USPS does not want postal codes on the country line, so instead we pretend that Singapore is the city name as well as the country name: 

Lower Kent Ridge Road
Singapore  119081
SINGAPORE

Singapore postal codes were changed from 4 to 6 digits in 1995. All the street signs also had to be changed, since they had 4-digit postcodes on them. Under the new system, each building in Singapore has its own unique postcode.

References:

INDIA

Addresses in India have city lines like "town postalcode". The postal code (PIN, Postal Index Number) has six digits with a space in the middle: 

HYDERABAD 500 032
BANGALORE 560 012

India Post recommends using BLOCK CAPITAL letters for the postal town. The state names are not used. According to Yateendra Joshi of New Delhi, "State names are totally redundant and are not required in the address at all. The post code and the delivery post office go together, as in Hyderabad 500 032 or Bangalore 560 012. Nothing but a space, ideally a dash, should come between the two. If you need to specify the state, it should come after the postal code, as in Hyderabad 500 032 Andhra Pradesh (or AP)." This is explained in more detail at the Maharashtra Postal Circle site, which shows examples such as these: 

Shri Govind Singh
Advocate
35 Mandir Marg
NEW DELHI 110 001

The Executive Engineer
Public Health Engineering Division- 1
Public office Building
Museum Road
THIRUVANAMTHPURAM
Kerala 695 033


Smt. Lakshmi Ramudu
21, Temple Street
BUKKAPATNAM PO
Anantapur District
Andhra Pradesh 515 144  

Modern Engineering Company
Post Box 3254
CHENNAI
Tamil Nadu 600 002

Of course when addressing mail to India from the USA, write INDIA as the final line. For the record, India has the following states (postal abbreviation shown):

AP Andhra Pradesh MNP Manipur
AR Arunachal Pradesh MEG Meghalaya
AS Assam MIZ Mizoram
BR Bihar NLD Nagaland
?? Chhattisgarh
GOA Goa OR Orissa
GUJ Gujarat PU Punjab
HR Haryana RAJ Rajasthan
HP Himachal Pradesh SKM Sikkim
JK Jammu and Kashmir TN Tamil Nadu
?? Jharkhand
KRN Karnataka TRP Tripura
KER Kerala ?? Uttaranchal
MP Madhya Pradesh UP Uttar Pradesh
MAH Maharashtra WB West Bengal

(the blank spots are because the number of Indian states increased from 25 to 28; the new ones are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttaranchal; I'll fix the formatting later) plus the following union territories:

AN Andaman and Nicobar Islands
CHD Chandigarh
DNH Dadra and Nagar Haveli
DD Daman and Diu
DEL Delhi
LKP Lakshadweep
PDY Pondicherry

References:

OTHER COUNTRIES

The UK and Ireland are covered in the next section. In most other countries, addressing is straightforward. Here are sample city lines from mail that has been received here, showing the three common conventions. Postal code before the city: 

27000 Mostaganem                ALGERIA
2 0142 Naishi                   KENYA

Postal code after the city: 

Jerusalem  95501                ISRAEL
Kingston  10                    JAMAICA
Tokyo  107                      JAPAN
Amman  844088                   JORDAN
Seoul  134-701                  KOREA
Besiktas-Istanbul  80700        TURKEY
Bangkok  10400                  THAILAND
East Rand 1462                  SOUTH AFRICA
Garki Abuja 900001              NIGERIA (*)
Lusaka 10101                    ZAMBIA
Valletta VLT 06                 MALTA

No postal code: 

Maputo                          MOZAMBIQUE
Aleppo City                     SYRIA
Hanoi                           VIETNAM
Harare                          ZIMBABWE

(*) From Peter Reynolds, 30 Jan 2002:
Nigeria has had a postcode system since around the early to middle part of 2001. The phone-book sized directory is available (evidently free of charge to those who have a good use for it) from: 

Nigeria Postal Service
PMB 12537
Garki Abuja 900001
FCT
NIGERIA

A significant minority of Nigerian citizens are now quoting their postcode as part of their address. [But the Web link to NIPOST seems to be defunct, even though it is still listed on the Nigerian Government Directory].

Quiz Question 2: If a person from Nigeria is a Nigerian, then what do we call someone from Niger?

BRITAIN AND IRELAND

King George, You Have Mail!

Where to find the most confusing addresses on earth...

What should be the name of this section? THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IRELAND (as it was once labeled), while technically correct if IRELAND is taken as the name of the country and not the island, can easily be misconstrued. THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND would not be correct since there is no country whose name is REPUBLIC OF IRELAND. THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ÉIRE is correct (two non-overlapping countries) but it contains a mixture of languages. Hence BRITAIN AND IRELAND (two non-overlapping islands) -- perhaps not quite adequate either since it might not encompass the various associated outlying islands.

Let's begin with an attempt to clarify the terminology:

ENGLAND

Mail to England proper, by the definition above, would generally be addressed to: 

town, county  postalcode
ENGLAND

But reportedly . . .

"The UK Post Office no longer uses county names in postal addresses. Since local councils have been mucked about with a lot since the mid 1970s it can be very confusing when people still try to use such names. UK postal addresses are at http://pol.royalmail.com" (Peter Reynolds, 30 Jan 2002), which would suggest that this entire section needs rewriting.

England is divided into counties, like Berkshire, etc, similar to our states. These are often abbreviated, like "Berks" for Berkshire, "Leics" for "Leicestershire", "Bucks" for Buckinghamshire, and are listed in Appendix I. When a county is included in a postal address, it refers to the post town, and not necessarily to the point of delivery.

English addresses tend to have lots of parts that we are not used to seeing, like: 

Person's Name
Eden Cottage
May's Green, Harpsden
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon  RG9 4AJ
ENGLAND

Eden Cottage (Name of House) is in May's Green, which is a Hamlet (or in Royal Mail terminology, a Double Dependent Locality Name: a collection of 5-20 houses) in the Village of Harpsden, which is served by the Postal Town, Henley, which is on the river Thames, in the County of Oxfordshire (Appendix I), and the Post Code is RG9 4AJ. The postal town should be written in uppercase and, as noted above, current practice seems to favor omitting the county, since counties are a moving target anyway. (It's difficult for Americans to comprehend the constant reshuffling of British counties, given the immutability of our own states, not to mention the fanatical cultural nationalism surrounding statehood :-) Thus the previous address might be written au courant as: 

Person's Name
Eden Cottage
May's Green, Harpsden
HENLEY-ON-THAMES  RG9 4AJ
ENGLAND

All sorts of whimsy might be encountered in the parts of the address above the postal town, like: 

Spofforths, Snaggley Lane,
Popsworth Green, near Scumble, Worcs, WN3 7JP

According to the foregoing taxonomy, it probably OK to translate this to: 

Spofforths
Snaggley Lane, Popsworth Green
SCUMBLE  WN3 7JP

When an English address is hopeslessly confusing, most of the middle parts can usually be omitted. For residential addresses it is reportedly sufficient to include only the person's name, house name and/or number, and postal code (but don't do this -- if all else fails, visit the website listed below).

Some towns have the same name as their enclosing county, or are so big or famous that everybody knows where they are, and so are written without a county: 

London  postal-code
Oxford  postal-code
Cambridge  postal-code (the one in Cambridgeshire)

Also use the latter form if the county is not known; by most accounts the postal code will do the job on its own. See the examples below.

England and the other countries of the UK (and several other places outside the UK) all share the same postal code system. A UK-style postal code follows these patterns (N = Digit, L = Letter): 

LN NLL
LLN NLL
LNN NLL
LLNN NLL
LLNL NLL

Note that all start with a letter, have at least one number in the first part, and all end with a space and then NLL. Besides these, there is one oddity: 

GIR 0AA

(i.e. LLL NLL) for a national bank conceived in the 1960s/1970s called GiroBank. Well, maybe two: 

Father Christmas
Reindeerland  SAN TA1

Here is your secret decoder ring for UK postal codes, courtesy of "George D":

  1. The first letter or pair of letters identifies the city or town which contains the main sorting office for the area. The larger cities have one letter and the smaller ones have two (eg, G for Glasgow but EH for Edinburgh and AB for Aberdeen). See also the exceptions below.

  2. The next figure or pair of figures identifies the postal district (eg, G1 covers part of the centre of Glasgow, G2 covers a different part and so on).

  3. When you add in the next number, you get a postcode sector (eg, G20 6 or EH3 5). Each sector is served by a delivery office where the postal workers who actually deliver the mail get hold of it.

  4. Add in the next letter and you get what's called the "postman's walk" (eg, EH11 2A). One worker will deliver all of the mail to the addresses covered by this designation.

  5. Finally comes the full postcode (called the 'unit postcode') which on average contains 15-20 'delivery points', ie, letterboxes which the mail gets put through (eg, EH11 2AQ - my own unit postcode).

There are a couple of exceptions worth mentioning. London postal codes have starting letters which use the points of the compass (eg N4 6BQ for an address in the north of the city or SW1 4AB for one in the south-west). Also, what the post office calls large users have their own postcodes - mainly organisations which get 50+ items of mail per day - although these look like normal postcodes. (end quote)

Mark Brader adds, "There are 8 of these, but not the eight 45-degree points. S and NE are not used (and those codes were given to Sheffield and Newcastle instead); EC and WC (east/west central) are used."

Ben Watson adds, "The reason London postcodes 'areas' are based on points of the compass is not because the city is so large, but because postally, London has been divided this way for well over a hundred years. Around London, you can see that some of the very old street name signs have NW or whatever after or below the street name (modern London street signs state the full postal district - eg. NW1)."

Mark Brader observes that "the system has been extended twice -- from the original NW to NW1 in the first half of the 20th century, then to NW1 1AB in the second half as your other submitters have mentioned. Some of the street signs with 'NW1' would date from before there were postal codes."

Ben Watson continues, "As an aside, the numbering of districts within a postal area (at least in London) looks illogical, as NW1 may not be adjacent to NW2. However, there some sort of logic behind it! The district of the main office in an area is always 1, then the rest of the numbers were assigned sequentially to an alphabetically ordered list of the rest of the districts in the area..

"Related to this, another assumption of mine is that the reason the UK national postcode system is somewhat weird is that when they introduced postcodes across the country in the sixties, they basically adopted the London system as-is (or as-was) and expanded it across rest of the country."

Which is confirmed by Hugh Dunne: "When British postal codes were first introduced, they only covered London and were of the form W1, SE9, etc -- but this was in the 1800s. Thus 'London W1', although seen in literature, is archaic and should not be encountered in modern addresses."

Mark Brader states, however, that "This is wrong. There were no numbers back then. The term for notations like 'London NW1' and 'New York 22', where the coded part is meaningful only with respect to the particular city, is 'postal zone', not 'postal code'. In some places when postal codes were introduced they were designed to incorporate the existing postal zones, such as London. I believe some other UK cities had numbered postal zones and these became the numerical part of the postal code, e.g. Birmingham 2 would now have B2 as the first part of all its codes, but this is partly only my conjecture. Similarly, I believe New York 22, N.Y. became NEW YORK NY 10022; I don't know about other US cities with postal zones. In Canada, all postal zones were obsoleted when postal codes came into use."

Traditional English addressing (i.e. before about 2001, when counties were included in the address): 

London  WC2R 1JP                     ENGLAND  (no need for a county)
Manchester  M27 2OO                  ENGLAND  (no need for a county)
Oxford  OX2 7DE                      ENGLAND  (no need for a county)
Colchester, Essex  CO4 3SQ           ENGLAND  (full form)
Canterbury, Kent  CT2 7NF            ENGLAND  (full form)
Coventry, West Midlands  CV6 5RW     ENGLAND  (full form)
Hayle, Cornwall  TR27 4LN            ENGLAND  (full form)
Harpenden, Hertfordshire  AL5 1PW    ENGLAND  (full form)
Harpenden, Herts  AL5 1PW            ENGLAND  (abbreviated)
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire  NG4 3AJ ENGLAND  (full form)
Nottingham, Notts  NG4 3AJ           ENGLAND  (abbreviated)

Updated examples, in which the Postal Town is uppercase and the County is omitted: 

LONDON  WC2R 1JP                     ENGLAND
MANCHESTER  M27 2OO                  ENGLAND
OXFORD  OX2 7DE                      ENGLAND
COLCHESTER  CO4 3SQ                  ENGLAND
CANTERBURY  CT2 7NF                  ENGLAND
COVENTRY  CV6 5RW                    ENGLAND
HAYLE  TR27 4LN                      ENGLAND
HARPENDEN  AL5 1PW                   ENGLAND
NOTTINGHAM  NG4 3AJ                  ENGLAND

The British armed forces have their own mail delivery system and addressing conventions (British Forces Post Office), just as the US armed forces do (APO, FPO). See the links below.

Links:

More Links:

Quiz Question 3: What is the Flag of England?

SCOTLAND AND WALES

Scotland and Wales are separate countries within the United Kingdom, on the island of Britain. They use UK postal codes. We can write SCOTLAND and WALES on the bottom line of the address, since these are country names recognized by the USPS (Authority: IMM Issues 23-28, July 2000 - January 2003).

According to Finlay Smith, "Scottish postal codes are based on postal towns: EH (Edinburgh) G (Glasgow) IV (Inverness) AB (Aberdeen) PH (Perth) PA (Paisley) KW (Kirkwall) DG (Dumfries) TD (Tweeddale) FK (Falkirk) and HS (Harris), which cover the whole of Scotland except a small part near the border which has a CA (Carlisle) postcode which annoys the locals (especially when they shut the local sorting office and their mail started to be franked with a Carlisle frank). These regions can cover vast areas and are not necessarily close to the named town." (Scotland also includes the Outer Hebrides, which also have UK postal codes.)

Ken Westmoreland adds, "Berwick-upon-Tweed in England is covered by the Scottish postcode area TD, much to the annoyance of locals there."

Although Scotland and Wales have counties just like England does (e.g. Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire, West Lothian, etc, in Scotland), we don't necessarily write them. They are not essential for addressing, and in Scotland especially, using a county name might do more harm than good, since there are old and new county names and boundaries and much confusion about which town is in which county. From Chris Cooke in Scotland:

"The big thing to realise about counties is that in 1974, most English and Welsh counties were changed, and Scottish and Northern Irish counties were abolished completely. The Northern Ireland counties were later reinstated I think, but Scotland remained divided into "regions" (yeuch) until 1996, when they were all abolished and the counties reinstated - but with different boundaries to the pre-1974 ones! England kept its counties throughout, but in 1974 and 1987 (?) and 1996 there were quite a few changes."

As to Wales, Alan Perry reports, "Your information on Wales needs to be updated. There was yet another change to county names in Wales [in 1994]; places like Gwynedd and South Glamorgan etc no longer exist! The former 8 counties have been replaced by 22 county borough councils (and a few newly-named county councils)" (see Appendix I). Addressing conventions from the Royal Mail Postal Address Book for Wales indicates addresses should be:

Alan says, "Most folk use the full address for a county borough but often leave out the county council name in the second case. I don't know why."

Examples for Scotland and Wales: 

ABERDEEN  AB1 1HG          SCOTLAND
EDINBURGH  EH8 9AG         SCOTLAND
GLASGOW  G2 7AD            SCOTLAND
DUNDEE  DD5 1NY            SCOTLAND
ABERYSTWYTH SY23 3HH       WALES
CARDIFF  CF23 6DS          WALES

Quiz Question 4: Who is the queen of Scotland?

THE CROWN DEPENDENCIES

These include the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey, where the cows come from, Sark and Alderney). None of these are part of the UK, although the Isle of Man is (perhaps arguably) part of the British Isles.

According to IMM, the country names are: 

GUERNSEY (or JERSEY, SARK, etc)
CHANNEL ISLANDS

and: 

ISLE OF MAN

Ken Westmoreland reports: The Channel Islands and Isle of Man didn't have their own postal administrations until the late 1960s, when the UK let them set up their own ones. Previously they were covered by the UK's GPO, just as Puerto Rico, USVI, etc, are still covered by the USPS. Guernsey now has blue pillar boxes, the only British territory I know that does. Hence they didn't become part of the UK postcode system until the early 1990s. Channel Islands and Isle of Man postcodes are as follows: 

JE Jersey
GY Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark
IM Isle of Man

Here is a sample Isle of Man address: 

Communications Commission
Winchester Court, Second Avenue,
ONCHAN  IM9 5DS
ISLE OF MAN

More info on the Crown Dependencies: 

http://www.gov.je (Jersey Government)
http://www.jerseypost.com/home.html (Jersey Post)
http://www.gov.gg (Guernsey Government)
http://www.guernseytouristboard.com/ (Guernsey Tourist Board)
http://www.guernseypost.com/ (Guernsey Post)
http://www.gov.im (Isle of Man Government)
http://www.isle-of-man.com/ (Isle of Man Tourism)
http://www.iompostoffice.com/ (Isle of Man Post)

THE OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

Gibraltar and the Falklands have their own addressing conventions (or lack of them) and should be addressed as countries in their own right as GIBRALTAR and FALKLAND ISLANDS respectively. 

Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce
1 Gibraltar Plaza
P.O. Box 758
Imossi House
1/5 Irish Town
GIBRALTAR

The Falklands are also claimed by Argentina, who call them the Malvinas; a war was fought over these islands in 1982. About 2200 people live there plus lots of penguins. Gibraltar is claimed by Spain and negotiations are presently underway as to its future.

Ken Westmoreland says, "Bermuda has its own postcode system, totally separate from the UK. Its postcodes are alphanumeric like British ones (Hamilton HM12), and mail is collected from red pillar boxes, just like the UK, which is really quaint for American tourists, just like having to drive on the left. Cheer up, at least Bermudians watch American TV networks and use the greenback."

"Bermuda street and PO Box addresses are as follows: 

56 Church Street
Hamilton HM 12
BERMUDA

PO Box HM 100
Hamilton HM AX
BERMUDA

"The UK also has British Forces Post Office (BFPO) numbers. Gibraltar is BFPO 52, but obviously unless you know anyone in HM Forces, that's academic."

Links: 

http://www.gibraltar.gi/ (Gibraltar)
http://www.falklands-malvinas.com/ (Falklands)
http://www.bermudapostoffice.com/postcodes.htm (Bermuda)

Quiz Question 5: Which countries have a picture of the Queen on their money?

NORTHERN IRELAND

Like England, Scotland, and Wales, Northern Ireland is a country of the UK that uses UK postal codes.

Northern Ireland has six counties. County names can be included, as in the country of Ireland (next section), in which case the word "County" (abbreviated "Co.") appears before the county name in the address. The county name is optional, however; usually just the postal town and postal code are sufficient, provided the postal code is on the city line.

Even though Northern Ireland is part of the UK, you should write its name as if it were its own country, rather than writing UNITED KINGDOM, to avoid offending those who oppose its current status (NORTHERN IRELAND can be offensive too, but this is the designation used in the USPS International Mail Manual so at least it gets US mail delivered to the right part of the island).

Examples: 

Belfast  BT6 9HQ                     NORTHERN IRELAND (No county needed)
Craigavon, Co. Armagh  BT67 0EY      NORTHERN IRELAND (full form)

The counties of Northern Ireland are Down, Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh (6) plus Belfast as a County Borough. Derry -- the city -- is the principal town in Co. Londonderry but until recently it was also called Londonderry. Since the removal of "London" is a political issue an apolitical vernacular compromise name is now Stroke City (as in Derry / Londonderry).

Rural townland names predate modern postal thinking. In Fermanagh for many years the Council refused to allocate roadnames or postcodes and insisted in retaining these traditional names. Naturally these townlands also had little relationship to the road layout, and houses had no actual numbers -- the address was like: 

Mr William Jones
Ballysomething (Bally meaning Townland of....)
Kesh (the nearest main village)
Co. Fermanagh

This approach supposes that the postman knows the people rather than their address, which would have been the case in low population rural areas until the 1950's.

By the way, contrary to popular belief, "Ulster" is not a proper name for Northern Ireland; it is a region (formerly a kingdom) containing all of Northern Ireland, plus Counties Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan in Ireland (next section).

IRELAND

Ireland is an independent country completely separate from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Never write UNITED KINGDOM on an Irish address. For the country of Ireland, use, simply: 

IRELAND

According to the Irish constitution, "The name of the state shall be �ire or, in the English Language, Ireland" (another form is �irinn). We use the English-language name, as we do for all other countries, so our post office will recognize it (in fact, the USPS IMM lists EIRE as an alternative name, and EIRE appears on Irish postmarks). Note that there is no country called the Republic of Ireland (this name was once used, but was abolished long ago; now it is the name of a football team). I have received every assurance that mail addressed to IRELAND is always delivered, even if it should somehow arrive at London or Belfast, rather than Dublin or Cobh.

Addresses in Ireland are similar to those in Northern Ireland, except that Ireland has no postal codes, except in Dublin where they are required. Thus an Irish address looks like: 

town, Co. name-of-county

Or for Dublin: 

Dublin postal-code

Dublin postal zones are numbers 1-24, plus a special one, "6W". Examples: 

Galway                               IRELAND (no county needed)
Dublin 4                             IRELAND (no county needed)
Dublin 6W                            IRELAND (no county needed)
Athlone, Co. Westmeath               IRELAND (full form)
Bandon, Co. Cork                     IRELAND (full form)
Ballyragget, Co. Kilkenny            IRELAND (full form)
Cobh, Co. Cork                       IRELAND (full form)
Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin            IRELAND (full form)
Monivea, Co. Galway                  IRELAND (full form)
Shannon Airport, Co. Clare           IRELAND (full form)
Tipperary Town                       IRELAND (*)

(*) Tipperary Town means "Tipperary, County Tipperary".

The 26 counties of Ireland are: 

Carlow        Galway        Limerick      Offaly        Wexford
Cavan         Kerry         Longford      Roscommon     Wicklow
Clare         Kildare       Louth         Sligo 
Cork          Kilkenny      Mayo          Tipperary 
Donegal       Laois         Meath         Waterford
Dublin        Leitrim       Monaghan      Westmeath

Reference: http://www.anpost.ie/

APPENDIX I: COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND

The counties of England, including recent changes. Sources:

In England, county names are not prefixed by the word "county" (as they are in Ireland), with one exception: County Durham, to distinguish the county from the city of the same name. The "shire" suffix is also used for this purpose, e.g. to distinguish the city of Nottingham from the county of Nottinghamshire, but in some cases the suffix is optional, e.g. Devon[shire].

Name Abbreviation Remarks
(Avon)   Defunct as of 1 Apr 96 => Somerset, Glos, and Bristol
Bedfordshire Beds  
Berkshire Berks  
Bristol    
Buckinghamshire Bucks  
Cambridgeshire Cambs  
Cheshire    
(Cleveland) Cleve Defunct 1 Apr 96 => Durham and North Yorkshire
Cornwall    
County Durham    
Cumbria    
Derbyshire Derbys  
Devon   Or Devonshire
Dorset    
East Riding of Yorkshire    
East Sussex    
Essex    
Gloucestershire Glos  
Greater Manchester    
Hampshire Hants (1)  
Hereford & Worcester   Split into Hereford and Worcestershire 1 Apr 1998
Hertfordshire Herts  
(Humberside)   Defunct 1 Apr 96 => Lincolnshire or East Riding of Yorkshire
(Huntingtonshire) Hunts Defunct => Huntingdonshire and Peterborough => Cambridgeshire
Isle of Wight    
Kent    
Lancashire Lancs  
Leicestershire Leics  
Lincolnshire Lincs Lincolnshire is the former [South] Humberside
London    
Merseyside    
Middlesex Middx Defunct government unit still used for postal addresses
Norfolk    
Northamptonshire Northants  
Northumberland Northumb  
North Yorkshire N. Yorks  
Nottinghamshire Notts  
Oxfordshire Oxon (2)  
Shropshire Salop (3)  
Somerset    
South Yorkshire S. Yorks  
Staffordshire Staffs  
Suffolk    
Surrey    
(Sussex)   Now East Sussex, West Sussex
Tyne & Wear    
Warwickshire Warks  
West Midlands    
West Sussex    
West Yorkshire W. Yorks  
Wiltshire Wilts  
(Yorkshire) Yorks => Humberside, North Yorks, Cleve, Durham, South Yorks, Cumbria, ...

Notes:

  1. Hants, from OE Hantum Scir -> Hamtunschire -> Hantescire; see http://www.hants.gov.uk/abouthnt.html,

  2. Oxon, from Latin Oxonia / OE Oxnaford.

  3. Shropshire came into existence as a unit of government in the early 10th century. The oldest known form of the name of the county is SCROBBESCIRE, the shire belonging to SCROBBESBYRIG, the Saxon name for Shrewsbury. After the Norman Conquest the county's new rulers adopted the forms SALOPESCIRE and SALOPESBIRY. The word SALOP, applying both to the county and the county town, survived from the middle ages as an alternative English form, having originally been abbreviated from the Norman French. A Latin form, SALOPIA, was commonly used in documents in the 16th century, and in subsequent centuries legal records refer to the County of Salop rather than to Shropshire. The new authority established in 1974 under the Local Government Act of 1972 was officially named Salop, but this was altered to Shropshire with effect from 1st March 1980

The counties of Wales, before and after 1994

In 1974 the former 13 Welsh counties were reorganized into eight. In 1994 the eight counties were split into 11 new counties and 11 county borough councils.

Former Counties
(prior to 1994) 		Current Counties New County Boroughs
(since 1994)
Clwyd Denbighshire
Flintshire 		Wrexham
Aberconwy and Colwyn
Dyfed Ceredigion (was Cardiganshire)
Carmarthenshire (Carms)
Pembrokeshire (Pembs) 		 
Gwent Monmouthshire Blaenau Gwent
Newport
Torfaen
Gwynedd Anglesey
Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire
Mid Glamorgan   Bridgend
Caerphilly
Merthyr Tydfil
Rhondda, Cynon, Taff
Powys Powys  
South Glamorgan Cardiff The Vale of Glamorgan
West Glamorgan Swansea Neath and Port Talbot

Liam McGee (formerly of Cardigan, in the county of Ceredigion) says, "Dyfed was indeed split in 1994 into the counties of Carmarthenshire (Carms), Pembrokeshire (Pembs) and Cardiganshire (no abbreviation, strangely). But the name 'Cardiganshire' lasted only a month or two (long enough to reprint all the letterheads), before being changed to 'Ceredigion', which is the current county name. Derived from the old Welsh name from the area, derived from the name 'Caradoc' from the word 'caredig' (caring).

"Non-Welsh-speakers often lose their nerve when addressing letters to Welsh destinations, believing that they have mis-spelled the address, especially when they include words like 'Cnwc', 'Bwlch' or, even better, 'Eglwyswrw'. In Welsh, 'w' or 'y' are regarded as perfectly acceptable vowels, and addresses with them in place of more familiar 'a's, 'e's and so on, are indeed correct." (Of course 'y' can be a vowel in English too.)

The Counties of Scotland

Here's an attempt at a list of the counties of Scotland. I have no idea which of these are current; will add that information eventually. The code is the Chapman County Code (I'm not sure what good Chapman codes are; they seem to be used mainly in genaeology; English, Welsh, and Irish counties have Chapman codes too). Like the counties of England and Wales, Scottish counties have been redrawn, renamed, converted to regions and back to counties, and so forth; thus this list is more a curiosity than of any particular use in postal addressing, other than historical. As Andy Paterson reports, "As regards overall postal usage, Scotland and the rest of the UK (GB + NI), including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, could rely solely on the use of the house number and the postcode. Indeed, many companies ask you for only this information rather than your full address when phoning them."

County Code Status, Alternative Name, etc.
Aberdeenshire ABD  
Angus ANS Forfarshire
Argyllshire ARL  
Ayrshire AYR  
Banffshire BAN  
Berwickshire BEW  
Borders BOR  
Bute BUT Buteshire
Caithness CAI  
Central CEN  
Clackmannanshire CLK  
Dumfries-shire DFS  
Dumfries and Galloway DGY  
Dunbartonshire DNB Dumbartonshire
East Lothian ELN  
Fife FIF Kingdom of Fife
Grampian GMP  
Highland HLD  
Inverness-shire INV  
Kincardine KCD  
Kinross KRS Kinross-shire
Kirkcudbrightshire KKD  
Lanarkshire LKS  
Lothian LTN  
Midlothian MLN  
Morayshire MOR  
Nairn NAI Nairnshire
Orkney OKI Orkney Islands
Peebles-shire PEE  
Perth PER Perthshire
Renfrewshire RFW  
Ross and Cromarty ROC  
Roxburghshire ROX  
Selkirkshire SEL  
Shetland SHI Shetland Islands
Strathclyde STD  
Stirlingshire STI  
Sutherland SUT Sutherlandshire
Tayside TAY  
West Lothian WLN  
Western Isles WIS  
Wigtownshire WIG  

APPENDIX II: LIST OF COUNTRY NAMES

The following list is our own internal standard, keyed as closely as possible to ISO 3166-1 and the USPS IMM. This is not a complete list of countries; for a complete list, see the IMM. But note that the IMM allows two or more names for certain countries (e.g. Netherlands and Holland; Taiwan and Formosa; Malaysia and Malaya, Iran and Persia), whereas we should always use the same name for each country, since they are used as database keys. Links are to postal authorities in each country, if known. The ISO column shows the ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 Code Element (which is also used as the Internet Domain).

Name to Use ISO Other or Old Names (don't use, even if correct)
AFGHANISTAN AF Islamic State of Afghanistan
ALBANIA AL Shqiperia, Republika e Shqiperise, Republic of Albania
ALGERIA DZ  
AMERICAN SAMOA AS  
ANDORRA AD  
ANGOLA AO Republic of Angola, Republica de Angola
ANGUILLA AI  
ARGENTINA AR  
ARMENIA AM Armenian SSR, ex-USSR
ARUBA AW  
ASCENSION AC  
AUSTRALIA AU Commonwealth of Australia, Oz (don't mix up with AUSTRIA)
AUSTRIA AT Oesterreich, �sterreich (don't confuse with AUSTRALIA)
AZERBAIJAN AZ ex-USSR
BAHAMAS BS The Bahamas
BAHRAIN BH State of Bahrain, Dawlat al Bahrayn, Al Bahrayn
BANGLADESH BD Formerly East Pakistan
BARBADOS BB  
BELARUS BY Belorussia, B{i,y}elorus(sia), White Russia, ex-USSR
BELGIUM BE (Koninkrijk) België, (Royaume de) Belgique, Kingdom of Belgium
BELIZE BZ British Honduras
BENIN BJ Dahomey, Republic of Benin, R�publique du Benin
BERMUDA BM  
BHUTAN BT  
BOLIVIA BO Republica de Bolivia, Republic of Bolivia
BOSNIA-HERZOGOVINA BA Was part of Yugoslavia
BOTSWANA BW Botswanaland, Republic of Botswana, Bechuanaland
BRAZIL BR (Republica Federativa do) Brasil, Federative Republic of Brazil
BRUNEI DARRUSALAM BN Brunei, Negara Brunei Darussalam
BULGARIA BG Republic of Bulgaria
BURKIMA FASO BF Upper Volta
BURUNDI BI Repulic of Burundi, Republika y'u Burundi
CAMBODIA KH Kampuchea, Khmer Republic
CAMAROON CM  
CANADA CA Dominion of Canada
CAPE VERDE CV Cabo Verde
CHAD TD Republic of Chad, (R�publique du) Tchad
CHILE CL República de Chile
CHINA CN Peoples Republic of China, Mainland China
COLOMBIA CO  
COSTA RICA CR  
C�TE D'IVOIRE CI Ivory Coast (1)
CROATIA HR Republika Hrvatska, Was part of Yugoslavia
CUBA CU Rep�blica de Cuba, Republic of Cuba
CURACAO AN Cura��o (Netherlands Antilles)
CYPRUS CY (Mail to northern Cyprus must go through Turkey)
CZECH REPUBLIC CZ Česko, Česka Republika, Czechia, Czech part of Former Czechoslovakia
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO CD R�publique Democratique du Congo, Congo/Kinshasa, Zaire, Belgian Congo
DENMARK DK Danmark
DOMINICA DM  
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC DO República Dominicana (don't confuse with Dominica)
ECUADOR EC  
EAST TIMOR TL (Democratic Republic of) Timor-Leste, Timor Lorosae, Portuguese Timor
EGYPT EG United Arab Republic
EL SALVADOR SV  
ENGLAND UK United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britain, UK
ESTONIA EE Eesti, ex-USSR
ETHIOPIA ET Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
FALKLAND ISLANDS FK Malvinas
FAROE ISLANDS FO Faeroe Islands, F�roya
FIJI FJ French Polynesia
FINLAND FI Suomi
FRANCE FR  
GABON GA Gabonese Republic
GAMBIA GM Republic of the Gambia, The Gambia
GEORGIA GE Republic of Georgia, ex-USSR (not Georgia, USA)
GERMANY DE (Bundesrepublik) Deutschland, Federal Republic of Germany
GHANA GH  
GIBRALTAR GI  
GREECE GR Ellas, Hellas
GREENLAND GL Kalaallit Nunaat
GUATEMALA GT República de Guatemala
GUERNSEY GG Guernsey (Channel Islands)
GUYANA GY British Guyana, British Guiana
HAITI HT R�publique d'Haiti
HONDURAS HN  
HONG KONG HK  
HUNGARY HU Magyarorszag
ICELAND IS Ísland
INDIA IN  
INDONESIA ID  
IRAN IR Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly Persia
IRAQ IQ Republic of Iraq
IRELAND IE �ire, Eire (Irish Free State, Republic of Ireland)
ISLE OF MAN IM Ellan Vannin
ISRAEL IL  
ITALY IT Italia
JAMAICA JM  
JAPAN JP Nippon
JERSEY JE Jersey (Channel Islands)
JORDAN JO The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Trans Jordan
KAZAKHSTAN KZ Kazakstan, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakh SSR, ex-USSR
KENYA KE Republic of Kenya, former British East Africa
KIRIBATI KI Gilbert and Ellice Islands
KOREA KR South Korea, Republic of Korea, ROK
KUWAIT KW  
KYRGYZSTAN KG Kyrgyz Republic, ex-USSR
LAOS LA Lao Peoples Democratic Republic
LATVIA LV Latvija, Lettland, ex-USSR
LEBANON LB Liban, R�publique Libanaise
LESOTHO LS Basutoland, Kingdom of Lesotho
LIBYA LY Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIECHTENSTEIN LI  
LITHUANIA LT Lietuva, Republic of Lithuania, ex-USSR
LUXEMBOURG LU Luxemburg, Grande-Duché de Luxembourg, Letzeburg
MACAU MO Macao, Mac�o (Now part of China)
MACEDONIA MK Makedonia (also in Greece), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
MADAGASCAR MG R�publique de Madagascar
MALAWI MW Nyasaland
MALAYSIA MY Malaya
MALDIVES MV  
MALI ML R�publique de Mali, formerly French Sudan
MALTA MT  
MAURITANIA MR Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Al Jumhuriyah al Islamiyah al Muritaniyah
MAURITIUS MU Republic of Mauritius
MEXICO MX M�xico, M�jico, Estados Unidos Mexicanos
MOLDOVA MD Moldavia, Republic of Moldova, Republica Moldoveneasca, ex-USSR
MONACO MC Principaute de Monaco
MONGOLIA MN Peoples Republic of Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Mongol Uls
MOROCCO MA  
MOZAMBIQUE MZ Mo�ambique
MYANMAR MM Burma, Union of Myanmar, (Pyidaungzu) Myanma Naingngandaw
NAMIBIA NA Republic of Namibia, formerly German Southwest Africa
NEPAL NP Kingdom of Nepal
NETHERLANDS NL Holland, Kingdom of the Netherlands, (Koninkrijk der) Nederland(en)
NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AN Dutch West Indies
NEW CALEDONIA NC  
NEW ZEALAND NZ Aotearoa
NICARAGUA NI República de Nicaragua
NIGER NE Republic of (the) Niger, R�publique du Niger
NIGERIA NG Federal Republic of Nigeria
NORTH KOREA KP Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, DPRK
NORTHERN IRELAND UK Ulster, United Kingdom
NORWAY NO Norge
OMAN OM Sultanate of Oman
PAKISTAN PK Islamic Republic of Pakistan
PALISTINIAN TERRITORY PS Palestine, West Bank, Gaza Strip
PANAMA PA República de Panama
PAPUA NEW GUINEA PG New Guinea
PARAGUAY PY  
PERU PE  
PHILIPPINES PH Philipine Islands, Republic of the Philipines, Republika ng Pilipinas
PITCAIRN ISLANDS PN  
POLAND PL Polska
PORTUGAL PT Republica Portuguesa
PUERTO RICO PR Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Uses USPS)
REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO CG R�publique du Congo, Congo/Brazzaville, Middle Congo,
ROMANIA RO Rumania, Roumania
RUSSIA RU ex-USSR, RSFSR, Russian Federation, Rossiya, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya
RWANDA RW Ruanda, Republika y'u Rwanda
SAMOA WS Independent State of Samoa, Western Samoa
SAN MARINO SM Repubblica di San Marino (inside Italy)
SAUDI ARABIA SA Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
SCOTLAND UK United Kingdom, Great Britain
SENEGAL SN R�publique du S�n�gal
SERBIA-MONTENEGRO YU (Federal Replublic of) Yugoslavia, (Savezna Republika) Jugoslavija, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo (2)
SIERRA LEONE SL Republic of Sierra Leone
SINGAPORE SG Republic of Singapore
SLOVAK REPUBLIC SK Slovakia, Republic of Slovakia, Slovensko, Slovenská Republica
SLOVENIA SI Slovenija, Republic of Slovenia
SMOM ?? Sovereign Military Order of Malta
SOUTH AFRICA ZA Republic of South Africa, formerly Union of South Africa
SPAIN ES Kingdom of Spain, Espa�a
SRI LANKA LK Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
SUDAN SD Republic of the Sudan, (Jumhuriyat) As-Sudan
SURINAME SR Republiek Suriname, formerly Dutch Guiana
SWAZILAND SZ Kingdom of Swaziland
SWEDEN SE Sverige
SWITZERLAND CH Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, Confœderatio Helvetica
SYRIA SY Syrian Arab Republic
TAHITI PF Polyn�sie Fran�aise, French Polynesia
TAIWAN TW Republic of China, ROC, Formosa
TAJIKISTAN TJ ex-USSR
TANZANIA TZ United Republic of Tanzania
THAILAND TH Siam
TOGO TG  
TRINIDAD TT Trinidad and Tobago
TUNISIA TN Tunis, Al Jumhuriyah at Tunisiyah
TURKEY TR Turk�ye
TURKMENISTAN TM ex-USSR
UGANDA UG Republic of Uganda
UKRAINE UA Ukrainia, The Ukraine, Ukrayina, Ukrainian National Republic, ex-USSR
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AE Abu Dhabi, Dubai, ...
UNITED KINGDOM UK See: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
URUGUAY UY República Oriental del Uruguay (ROU)
USA US United States, United States of America, EEUU
UZBEKISTAN UZ ex-USSR, O'zbekiston
VATICAN CITY VA Holy See (Inside Italy)
VENEZUELA VE  
VIETNAM VN Việt Nam, Socialist Replublic of Viet Nam, Indochina, Annam
WALES UK United Kingdom, Great Britain
YEMEN YE Republic of Yemen
ZAMBIA ZM Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland
ZIMBABWE ZW Southern Rhodesia

Notes:

  1. The USPS IMM lists the French name, C�te d'Ivoire (complete with circumflex) and not the English name.
  2. The USPS IMM uses SERBIA-MONTENEGRO but ISO uses YUGOSLAVIA.

APPENDIX III: QUIZ ANSWERS

  1. Some of the Aleutian Islands, by Japan, as well as the French West Indies; in the period 1940-1943, Martinique's Vichy government was technically at war with the USA and its allies. This was the setting for the Howard Hawks / Humphrey Bogart / Lauren Becall film, To Have and Have Not, as well as the coming of age of Franz Fanon.
  2. Nigerien or Nigerois.
  3. Queen Elizabeth I (who is the same person as Queen Elizabeth II of England).
  4. The flag of England is:       The Union Flag is:  
  5. The UK of course, and...? Ken Westmoreland has the best answer so for: "Australia (on coins and perhaps certain notes), New Zealand (on coins), Canada (on coins and the $20 note). Fiji (on both even though it became a republic in 1987!!). Papua New Guinea, Kina, and Solomon Islands Dollar, at least on coins. Scottish and Northern Ireland banknotes don't; Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man ones do. Gibraltar, Falklands, and St Helena do and still use sterling (although they're considered 'foreign' by UK banks!). Bermuda (dollar on par with greenback since 1970). British Virgin Islands use US Dollar, other Overseas Territories in the region use Eastern Caribbean dollar; not sure if they have the Queen on their coins, although all except Dominica still have the Queen as head of state. Jamaica and Barbados still have the Queen as head of state, but don't have her on their money, although the Bahamas may do (like Bermuda, local dollar on par with greenback). All notes and coins with HM's portraits in Hong Kong were withdrawn from circulation before the handover in 1997." Also: Belize banknotes have the Queen's portrait (I don't know about coins).

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