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Subject:Re: ZIP code stuff From:Margaret Gerard <margaret%mailhost -at- TOSHIBA -dot- TIC -dot- OZ -dot- AU> Date:Wed, 11 May 1994 16:58:41 --1000
In Australia it is called a POSTCODE - all uppercase but not an acronym.
It began in 1966. Our POSTCODEs have 4 digits. The first digit indicates
the state. The number n001 is always used for the private mail boxes at the
GPO (head post office) in the capital city of each state. POSTCODEs
roughly indicate distance (not actual kms) from the GPO and numeric
proximity indicates geographic proximity but this has got out of whack in
areas of huge expansion.
Way back in the dim dark ages of childhood when I first noticed ZIP____
on printed materials emanating from the US (and before POSTCODE was
introduced here) I had no idea that ZIP represented Zonal Improvement Plan.
I remember thinking that they must have chosen the word "zip" to mean that
if you used the code, the mail would be delivered fast i.e. with zip and if
you didn't, it wouldn't :>)
