# Why put Americans use state prefixes in front of zip codes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490 "2005-04-15T16:09:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/41 "2005-04-15T20:59:55Z")
> [@Exgineer](#): > > I’m not even going to touch the “programming the machines to read full state names” thing. Please do! What is being read when something is machine-sorted? And will certain elements really screw it up in spite of a correct and legible zip code? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/42 "2005-04-15T21:08:10Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > That reminds me…in the same show I hear the term ‘trading estate’…I guess that must be like what we’d call a ‘business park’ in the U.S. Yes, that’s it. ‘Industrial estate’ is another common term (naturally, no actual industry takes place). > [@Equipoise](#): > > I have 2 different friends in England whose **house names** go on their mail! After writing one of them for years, I never knew what that “Avalon” meant until I finally visited them in Kent. There was a sign next to the door that said Avalon. I like that the postal workers will know you by your house’s name rather than just a number. Another friend’s house name is Moonviews. I saw a name by the door in the movie **Millions** too. Is it still common or going out of style? It’s still common enough. It generally applies to places where numbering was never applied, such as rural locations (there’s plenty of 'Red House Farm’s and the like), and also to oddities like where I live (3 Post Office Cottages, The Street…quite separate from 3 The Street. Mis-deliveries are frequent.) > [@elmwood](#): > > I guess the British addressing system is far less formal than the US system, incorporating as many or as few geographic features as the addresser wants to narrow down a location. Yep, it’s less formalised. Probably at least in part because a greater chunk of the system predates postcode-type systemisation - as you say, the important thing is the address describing the location accuratly enough. I also wonder whether there’s more of an assumption that a ‘postal’ address is also a good-enough description for somebody to actually find the premises? ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/43 "2005-04-15T21:37:00Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Here’s a postal code question for **Schnitte**. > > I was an exchange student in Germany a long time ago, and I noticed that there you usually wrote a four digit city code, the city name, and then perhaps a district code. For smallish cities, like Goettingen where I was, you’d just write “3400 Goettingen”. But for a larger city it’d be something like, 2000 Berlin 23. At least that’s how I think it worked. Could you explain the details? > > Also, when was the postal code system implemented? Does it carry over from the early 20th century, or before? If so, does the Bundespost still maintain the lists of city codes for places that are no longer in Germany, like Breslau? If I were in Germany and wanted to write to someone who lives in Breslau, could I write the old German code for Breslau, and the name ‘Breslau’ on the envelope, or would I have to write ‘Wroclau’? I’ll answer that if I may. The four-digit German postcodes were part of old (1961-1993) system. The appended numbers indicated district post offices in larger cities - the numbers were needed for routing purposes and also because street names were sometimes duplicated in different districts of the same city when the city had gobbled up smaller towns. The present 5-digit system was introduced in 1993 in East and West Germany) and superseded older systems from 1961/1965 (West and East Germany, respectively; 4 digits; conflicting), 1941 (two digits), 1917 and 1853. As we have been on reasonably good behaviour since 1993 we have not managed to lose any more territory yet. Deutsche Post doesn’t meddle in other countries’ postal districting (it’s a private company now anyway). In letters to Poland the Polish place names are fine on the German side and very much advisable on the Polish side as the Poles tend to be touchy about such things. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/44 "2005-04-15T21:37:11Z")
Postal worker checking in… Quite a few people in this thread are on the money. Or close to it. Manual sorting of letters is generally done not using codes. When I learned to sort years ago, it was a rote learning of many thousands of placenames, and we were specifically told not to use codes when sorting. We were not taught them. Rather, we memorise a destination office for each town name. A US postal worker in say, California, would know by rote probably every placename and corresponding parent office in that state (a few thousand), and would also have learned another few hundred or a thousand out of state places. Your Californian sorter would know where to sort your average big east coast town, but not the smaller places, and would rely on the state abbreviation for those. With automated sorting, the situation is actually quite similar. Sorting technology relies heavily on cross-referencing various parts of the address. It needs to do this due to the vague nature of human handwriting (and even printer addresses). The machine will rely primarily on the zip code, but also on the city, the state, and even sometimes the street name. If it can’t reconcile these things, the letter will be rejected to be sorted by a human being. If you send a letter to “2700 Sunset Blvd, Chicago FL 97318”, the machine would get extremely grumpy and throw it out, rather than sending it blindly to wherever 97318 may be. The state abbreviation therefore, is just another piece in the puzzle. Sorting by either machine or hand is not an exact science, and every little clue helps. You _can_ get away with all sorts of oddities and idiosyncrasies in your addressing. Usually, that is. I have no doubt that Mad Magazine did in fact receive that Alfred E. Neuman letter. I have sorted things like these myself. Try: “Golden Wok Chinese Restaurant, Eat in or Take Away, No MSG, Sydney” for example. I got it there. However, bear in mind that sorters of both the human and robotic variety have no time to waste and your letter is with them for a fleeting moment. Every possible clarification you can add to an address is a help to them, and the state abbreviation is one of these. ---
**Author:** ![Lieve\_Spinrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@Lieve\_Spinrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lieve_Spinrad)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/45 "2005-04-15T21:47:04Z")
US postal standards for addressing can be found here: > **[pub28.pdf](https://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/Pub28/pub28.pdf)** Because of automation, the USPS is pretty specific about what an address should look like. It looks like there is also a move for international address standards. Probably won’t make all addresses look alike, but it might force all countries to come up with a standard format, if they don’t have one already. [http://xml.coverpages.org/adis.html](http://xml.coverpages.org/adis.html) But since the post everywhere is run by the government, I’ll bet all countries have their own standards, just as USPS does. Lieve :smack: Spinrad ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/46 "2005-04-15T22:03:44Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > I’ll answer that if I may. > > The four-digit German postcodes were part of old (1961-1993) system. The appended numbers indicated district post offices in larger cities - the numbers were needed for routing purposes and also because street names were sometimes duplicated in different districts of the same city when the city had gobbled up smaller towns. In the 1961 - 1993 scheme, before reunification, did the German Democratic Republic have a separate and different system, or did they have one that was compatible with it, not having any duplicate numberings? Would the address of a letter bound for Leipzig follow the same standard as one addressed to Stuttgart? ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/47 "2005-04-15T22:11:13Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > In the 1961 - 1993 scheme, before reunification, did the German Democratic Republic have a separate and different system, or did they have one that was compatible with it, not having any duplicate numberings? Would the address of a letter bound for Leipzig follow the same standard as one addressed to Stuttgart? The West German system reserved numbers 1001-1999 and 9000-9999 for East Germany, making a political point. The East German system then used the numbers 1000-9999 for East Germany, also making a political point. That’s why both systems were scrapped after unification. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/48 "2005-04-15T22:12:25Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > You can get even older than that. As late as the 1980s, I was getting holiday cards from elderly relatives, that included the old postal zone in the address (“Buffalo 15, N.Y.”). I also recieved letters with just the word “City” in place of the city, state and Zip; apparently at one time it was acceptable to use “City” or “Town” alone for mail that didn’t cross municipal boundaries. > > Judging from the alien-looking European addresses I’ve seen, the order of a North American postal address may seem odd; the elements of the address aren’t in the order of smallest to largest geographical area. Take, for instance: > > Cecil Adams > 11 E Illinois Av > Chicago IL 60611 > > A Zip code covers a smaller area than the community, but it comes last in an address. Logically, an address should look like: > > Cecil Adams > 11 E Illinois Av > 60611 Chicago IL > > European-style addresses don’t follow the smallest-to-largest order, either. If the Reader was in Germany, the address would look something like: > > Cecil Adams > Illinoißtraße 11 > 60611 Chicagoburg > > British addresses are a mystery to me, because the include several geographic place names; I don’t know if they’re broken down by municipality/council, neighborhood, county or what. > > Cecil Adams > 11 Pillory Close > Off Diddling > Doperham > Swallow-on-Cleese > St. Nigel > M4K 8SP Dextershiremere > > If there’s a postal addressing system I’d like explained to me, it’s the one the Brits use. Cecil Adams Illinoisstraße 11 60611 Chicagoburg ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/49 "2005-04-15T23:00:28Z")
I work with Geographic Information Systems, and I have available to me a book that consists of nothing but descriptions of postal addressing systems from around the world. It’s hundreds of pages long. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/50 "2005-04-16T02:11:32Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > The West German system reserved numbers 1001-1999 and 9000-9999 for East Germany, making a political point. The East German system then used the numbers 1000-9999 for East Germany, also making a political point. That’s why both systems were scrapped after unification. I’m not surprised. The degree to which the separateness was emphasized was remarkable. I remember that the Interail passes were good in several Eastern-Bloc countries, but not East Germany. ---
**Author:** ![stochastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@stochastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stochastic)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/51 "2005-04-16T03:43:09Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > A US postal worker in say, California, would know by rote probably every placename and corresponding parent office in that state (a few thousand), and would also have learned another few hundred or a thousand out of state places. Your Californian sorter would know where to sort your average big east coast town, but not the smaller places, and would rely on the state abbreviation for those. hehe, not if you visited my local post office here in CA. I brought in a package to be sent to West Virginia. The clerk behind the counter asked me what WV stood for. When I told him, he argued with me, saying that I should have used VA and not WV on the address because “West Virginia is part of Virginia”. :rolleyes: He was thoroughly embarrassed when his co-worker corrected him… I guess there’s a reason why the guy was working the counter and not in the back sorting letters. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/52 "2005-04-16T04:16:02Z")
A little more about zip codes… First of all, zip codes are still “optional” in that if you leave it off entirely but get everything else right the letter will probably still get there. However, using the darn things does make delivery more certain and probably faster. Although many places have zip+4, if you leave the last four digits off, it will still get there. There MUST be a density factor here. For instance, the Sears Tower in Chicago has a whole zip code all to itself. Just one building. (of course, it’s a _really huge_ building). The building I work in - also in the Chicago Loop - has its own zip+4. However, it’s NOT enough to accurately put my name, the street number, the city, state, and correct zip on a letter. If you don’t put my company name on the letter as well I’ll never get it. (This is a common problem where I work, people trying to send us stuff and having it returned to them “addressee unknown”). The problem is that while the street address and zip accurately locate the building, the building itself is 80 stories tall and takes up a significant portion of a city block. There are nearly one hundred businesses in the building I work in, and several thousand people. In other words, street address and zip are not specific enough for the purpose. One the other hand, as already pointed out, you can be quite lax in addressing habits in other instances and the mail will still get there. I’ll say this for the USPS, they _do_ make an effort to deliver the mail, despite bad handwriting and cryptic addresses. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/53 "2005-04-16T07:19:19Z")
UK Postcodes: From: [http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=9200078&catId=400044](http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=9200078&catId=400044) Go to point 10. County not necessary. Both my recent addresses were House Name Village Town or County Post Code My name and post code would always ensure delivery as rural postal workers know just about everyone and there are only four or five who ever do the delivery. Different story in towns and cities where they know less and have many people doing any given delivery. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/54 "2005-04-16T07:54:55Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Here’s a postal code question for **Schnitte**. > > I was an exchange student in Germany a long time ago, and I noticed that there you usually wrote a four digit city code, the city name, and then perhaps a district code. For smallish cities, like Goettingen where I was, you’d just write “3400 Goettingen”. But for a larger city it’d be something like, 2000 Berlin 23. At least that’s how I think it worked. Could you explain the details? > > Also, when was the postal code system implemented? Does it carry over from the early 20th century, or before? If so, does the Bundespost still maintain the lists of city codes for places that are no longer in Germany, like Breslau? If I were in Germany and wanted to write to someone who lives in Breslau, could I write the old German code for Breslau, and the name ‘Breslau’ on the envelope, or would I have to write ‘Wroclau’? As far as I know, the four-digit system was implemented in the 1960s. Every town was assigned a four-digit number; the more important the town, the more zeros it had at its end, which is why you could omit zeros at the end of the code. Munich, for example, used to be 8000, but you could simply write 8. My hometown used to be 8880 (or 888), signifying it must be in the Munich area. In the county where my hometown is, there’s a village that had 8888, and letters stamped by the local office on August 8, 1988 were popular collectibles. The 23 in 2000 Berlin 23 (which, you gess it, could also be written as 2 Berlin 23) referred to the postal district 23 within Berlin. Those numbers were mandatory if the city had more than one post office, but there was no such number (I think it was referred to as the number of the _Zustellbezirk_, delivery district) if the town was small enough to have only one post office. Since the system was not implemented until after the war, the regions that used to be German and became Polish/Russian after 1945 never had German postal codes. After reunification, there were plenty of duplicates because East Germany and West Germany both had introduced their own systems. Besides, the Bundespost had realized the old four-letter system wasn’t capable of coping with the challenges of a more modern mail system, so a new five-digit scheme was implemented in 1993. It works very much the same as America’s five-digit (there’s no such thing as the zip+4) system: Break down the entire country into areas and assign them numbers. Assign every post office within a larger city a number of its own, eliminating the need for the delivery district codes. A post office within a city might also serve more than one code, if its precinct is large enough to provide for more than one delivery district. Bulm mail recipients such as large mail-order companies might be assigned a code completely on their own. The postal code always precedes the city name in German addresses; so I live in 89407 Dillingen now. The _Land_ (the Land is the equivalent to U.S. states in Germany’s federalism) is not referred to in the address, and it is generally uncommon to refer to the Land when talking about your hometown. If there are several cities that bear the same name, it is usual to make clear which one you mean by using geographical designations, for example river names: There’s another Dillingen beside mine; mine is Dillingen upon the Danube, or Dillingen an der Donau in German, and the other one, close to the French border, is Dillingen an der Saar. Mine is in the Land of Bavaria, the other one in the Land named Saarland, but it’s not the name of the Land that’s used as designator. The Bundespost (federal mail agency) was privatized in the 1990s, btw, and is now a stock exchange traded corporation named Deutsche Post AG (German Mail Corporation). The federal government still holds a large portion of share, however. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/55 "2005-04-16T12:02:21Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > [http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=9200078&catId=400044](http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?mediaId=9200078&catId=400044) > Go to point 10. > > County not necessary. That’s interesting…and I’ve just realised that the ‘official’ version of my address, from the Royal Mail postcode database, includes my county but omits the post town. And importantly, they say that “You do not need to include a County name **provided the Post Town** and Postcode are used”. I suspect that post towns generally get omitted more often than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/56 "2005-04-16T13:15:57Z")
> [@stochastic](#): > > hehe, not if you visited my local post office here in CA. I brought in a package to be sent to West Virginia. The clerk behind the counter asked me what WV stood for. When I told him, he argued with me, saying that I should have used VA and not WV on the address because “West Virginia is part of Virginia”. :rolleyes: > He was thoroughly embarrassed when his co-worker corrected him… I guess there’s a reason why the guy was working the counter and not in the back sorting letters. Maybe he just arrived in a time machine from 1860. Reminds me of the frequent difficulty New Mexico residents have convincing telephone shopping operators that New Mexico really is part of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/57 "2005-04-16T13:48:32Z")
Thanks, **Schnitte**. That was highly informative about German addressing protocol. Slightly off topic, but worth bringing up here: I was taught that one should always capitalize and italicize _Land_ when referencing a (then-West) German major political subdivision, to make clear that you’re using the German word corresponding to a U.S. or Aussie State or Canadian province, as opposed to the Wonderful Land of Oz or the Land That Time Forgot. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/58 "2005-04-17T16:06:12Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Thanks, **Schnitte**. That was highly informative about German addressing protocol. > > Slightly off topic, but worth bringing up here: I was taught that one should always capitalize and italicize _Land_ when referencing a (then-West) German major political subdivision, to make clear that you’re using the German word corresponding to a U.S. or Aussie State or Canadian province, as opposed to the Wonderful Land of Oz or the Land That Time Forgot. From time to time, I also encounter the German plural form of Land, _Länder_, in English texts. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/59 "2005-04-17T16:37:28Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > Well, it helps in case you get one wrong. Sorry, haven’t read the thread; but this reminded me of the first letter my mom sent me when I moved to L.A. My apartment was on Clarington Avenue, north of Venice Blvd. Although people often think of the area as Culver City, Culver City is _south_ of Venice Blvd. and Los Angeles is north. My mom addressed a letter to me with the correct street address, apartment number and ZIP code, but she put ‘Culver City’ for the city instead of ‘Los Angeles’. It took two weeks for the letter to arrive from her home in Redondo Beach, a short trip down the 405. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2005, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490/60 "2005-04-18T08:14:37Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > Also applies in Canada. K1S 2P3 is unequivocally in Ottawa Ontario, but you’re still supposed to have Ottawa ON K1S 2P3 if you’re sending to someone in that postal code. Try to type fast those cursed UK and CDN postcodes. **DA** 37 6 **MN** 2 ! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-put-americans-use-state-prefixes-in-front-of-zip-codes/299490.md?page=4)