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In the early 1960s, the Post Office Department (known today as the U.S. Postal Service®) faced rapidly growing mail volumes. The Post Office Department developed a five-digit number code to be added for each address. This code—the ZIP Code™—helped to quickly sort mail and speed its delivery, but Department officials were concerned that Americans would not easily accept or adopt adding unfamiliar five-digit numbers to each address.
Enter Mr. ZIP™, a little stick figure character who used a letter and satchel to convince Americans to use a ZIP Code when addressing mail. The use of the ZIP Code system began on July 1, 1963. Within a year, between a third and a half of mail had a ZIP Code. Today, virtually everyone uses a ZIP Code.
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The Creation of Mr. ZIP
Mr. ZIP was based on an original design by Harold Wilcox, son of a letter carrier and a member of the Cunningham and Walsh advertising agency, for use by a New York bank in a bank-by-mail campaign. Wilcox's design was a child-like sketch of a postman delivering a letter. The figure was used only a few times, then filed away. Later, AT&T acquired the design and made it available to the Post Office Department at no cost.
Post Office Department artists retained the face but sharpened the limbs and torso and added a mail bag. The new figure, dubbed Mr. ZIP, was unveiled at a convention of postmasters in October 1962. Until January 1986, his image was printed in the white area outside of the stamp, known as the selvage.
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Mr. ZIP Today
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Currently undergoing a renaissance, the Mr. ZIP character is being updated by the Postal Service™ for licensing and other purposes, extending his cultural icon status to a new generation of Americans.
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ZIP Code Stats
In 1963, the five-cent First-Class™ stamp only covered 80 percent of its own costs. Taxpayer subsidies covered the rest. The Post Office Department processed and delivered 68 billion pieces of mail to 188 million customers at less than 60 million addresses. Today’s U.S. Postal Service earns its own way without taxpayer support for postal operations and delivers 202 billion pieces of mail to 291 million Americans at more than 141 million addresses.
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ZIP Code Defined
The first digit in the ZIP Code indicates a general geographic area of the nation, starting with “0” in the eastern U.S. to “9” to represent areas in the western U.S. The next two numbers in the ZIP Code represent regional areas, and the final two numbers identify specific Post Office™ locations or postal zones.
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Impact of ZIP Code
Today’s use of a ZIP Code extends far beyond the mailing industry. ZIP Code numbers are embedded into the way that businesses work and have become an integral element of the 911 emergency system that uses ZIP Code mailing codes as an aid in saving lives.
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