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Fun facts
Impress family and friends with your knowledge of these facts about the lighter side of the Postal Service.
Postal Facts - U.S. Postal Service
POSTAL
BULLETIN
On time. Every time. The Postal Bulletin, a nationally distributed biweekly publication, serves as a source for official policy, procedure updates and departmental news for all Postal Service functions. It has never missed a deadline since its inception in 1880.
Flags
at Post Offices
Post Offices were first required to display the American flag in 1885 to comply with Treasury Department instructions. As of Nov. 7, 2019, Post Offices are required to fly the Prisoner of War (POW)-Missing in Action (MIA) flag on the same days that the American flag is flown.
In 2025, the Postal Service replaced 24,413 U.S. flags and 29,096 POW-MIA flags.
LEAVING
our mark
The Postal Service has 409 domestic and 957 foreign trademark registrations.
PATENTLY
the best
Patently the best. USPS has 1,763 domestic and foreign patents and applications on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Post Office
in a shipping container
The Power, MT, Post Office (ZIP Code 59468) was built in 2019 and is the first Post Office built using a shipping container.
1994
USPS launches its website
The Postal Service launched its first public website, usps.gov, in 1994. The site became usps.com in 2000.
Visitors to usps.gov are redirected to the official Postal Service website, usps.com.
Postmarked
Produce
The farm-to-table concept isn’t new. From 1914 to 1920, the farm-to-table program was a novel initiative that allowed farmers to arrange prices with people in urban areas and then mail them fresh meats, eggs, dairy products, produce, honey, jelly and more. This was a way to give farmers more customers and city dwellers greater and cheaper access to fresh goods.
© is for
CREATIVE
© is for creative. The Postal Service has 749 copyright registrations, many of them to protect artwork on postage stamps.
WE
deliver!
The Postal Service moves mail by planes, hovercraft, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, bicycles, mules and feet.
Nuts
and potatoes
Coconuts and potatoes can be mailed without a box. Simply write the destination and return addressees on your piece of produce and have it weighed for appropriate postage. USPS will ship it as-is.
Photo: Coconuts ready for mailing at the Molokai, HI, Post Office.
Hope
in the mail
Hope in the mail. In 1958, luxury jeweler Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution. With his years of experience in shipping jewelry all over the world, Winston sent the diamond via Registered Mail service with the Post Office Department.
The diamond was placed in a box, wrapped in brown paper, and sent by registered mail from New York in a Railway Post Office train car. In Washington, DC, it was picked up by a mail carrier and driven to the National Museum of Natural History. The price paid for shipping the gem, valued at $1 million at the time, was $145.29, most of that for package insurance.
As good as
GOLD
Under the watchful security of the Postal Inspection Service, Railway Mail Service clerks transferred some of the $9 billion in gold bullion shipped as Registered Mail from the New York City Assay Office to the depository at Fort Knox, KY, in 1941.
The Inspection Service provided security and management in the cooperative effort between the Post Office Department, local law enforcement, U.S. Army and U.S. Treasury Department.
Kids
in the mail??
Do not try to ship your kids! In the early days of Parcel Post service, a few parents managed to mail their children to relatives. In 1913, an 8-month-old baby in Ohio was mailed by his parents to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away. The baby was safely delivered! Regulations were quickly established to prevent any additional mailing of children through the U.S. Mail.
just another
BRICK IN THE MAIL
Individual bricks can be shipped in the U.S. Mail. Get a permanent marker, write the address and your return address, get it weighed and add the postage. Send that special someone a brick of affection.
Just don’t think you can send enough bricks to build a house or, perhaps a bank. Been there. Done that. You can read about the bank of Vernal, UT, here.
Decoding
the ZIP Code
The Zoning Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code was launched in 1963 to better process and deliver increasing volumes of U.S. Mail. The first number in the five-digit ZIP Code represents a general geographic area of the nation, “0” in the east, moving to “9” in the west. The next two numbers represent regional areas, and the final two identify specific Post Offices. In 1983, the ZIP+4 Code was introduced.
Decoding the code. In 1983, the ZIP+4 Code was introduced. The extra four numbers enable mail to be sorted to a specific street. In 1991, two more numbers were added so that mail could be sorted directly to a residence or business. Today, the use of the ZIP Code extends far beyond the mailing industry, including being a fundamental component in the nation’s 911 emergency system.
There are 41,552 ZIP Codes in the country. They range from 00501, belonging to the Internal Revenue Service in Holtsville, NY, to 99950 in Ketchikan, AK. Easiest to remember? How about 12345, a unique ZIP Code for General Electric in Schenectady, NY.
Mr. ZIP helped promote the new ZIP Code concept in 1963.
The last
STRAWS
In Corrales, NM, in 1999, a new Post Office was built with more than 900 bales of straw as insulation. The Post Office is still standing strong and saving energy — a proud testament to the Postal Service’s longstanding history of sustainable practices.
Corrales NM Post Office
Write badly?
We can still read it!
The USPS Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City examined 841,260,847 images of poorly written addresses in fiscal year 2025.
Letter mail at a processing plant that cannot be read by the automated equipment has an image taken and transmitted to the Remote Encoding Center (REC). At the REC, employees look at the image and type in address information. The information is matched up with a valid address, the data is transmitted back to the equipment at the plant, and a barcode is printed on the letter. That barcode can be read by any letter processing machine in the Postal Service, keeping the letter within the automated stream of mail in the postal network.
Floating
Post Office
This Post Office floats! The Halibut Cove Post Office in Homer, AK, (ZIP Code 99603) floats. The office is a small houseboat that is permanently tied to a dock.
No Flag
Flies Here
No high-flying flag here. The B. Free Franklin Post Office in Philadelphia, which is part of Independence National Historical Park, does not fly the U.S. flag. This office aims to recreate the atmosphere of a Colonial-era Post Office, and the Stars and Stripes did not yet exist in 1775.
Franklin used to own the building and there is a small museum on the second floor.
OUTER SPACE
postage stamp
A postage stamp was onboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft that made a flyby of Pluto in July 2015. That’s the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp — more than 3 billion miles, as noted by Guinness World Records.
The “Pluto: Not Yet Explored” 29-cent stamp was part of a set of solar system stamps that were issued in 1991. In 2015, the stamp made a flyby of Pluto while onboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Guinness World Records confirmed the more than 3-billion-mile journey is the farthest distance traveled by a postage stamp.
About
that motto
The U.S. Postal Service has no official motto. Nope, it’s not this phrase: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” But we certainly appreciate the sentiment.
About that motto…
Those words are engraved on the front of the James A. Farley Post Office in New York City, set in stone by the architectural firm that built it. The phrase is taken from an ancient book by the Greek historian Herodotus and refers to messengers in the Persian Empire.
The phrase comes from book 8, paragraph 98, of The Persian Wars by Herodotus, a Greek historian. During the wars between the Greeks and Persians (500-449 B.C.), the Persians operated a system of mounted postal couriers who served with great fidelity.
The popular belief that Herodotus’s description of the Persian postal service is about the U.S. Postal Service is a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have delivered the mail reliably and dependably, through all conditions, for centuries.
MULE TRAIN
delivery
The most unusual mode of delivery used by the Postal Service is the mule train. Since the 1930s, mules have been carrying mail and goods to the Havasupai people inside the Grand Canyon.
Got mules? The most unusual mode of delivery
used by the Postal Service is the mule train. Since the
1930s, mules have been carrying mail and goods to the
Havasupai people inside the Grand Canyon.
- Daily delivery includes 10-22 mules, along with one
wrangler on horseback, five days a week, traveling
nine miles down into the canyon to the Supai
Post Office. - It takes three hours to get down and five hours to
get up. - On the way up, the wrangler untethers the mules and
sends them back on their own. - Each mule can carry up to 200 pounds, and the
weight is distributed equally on each side of the
animal for balance. - The Supai Post Office has a special Mule
Train postmark.
41,554
ZIP Codes
There are 41,554 ZIP Codes in the country. They range from 00501, belonging to the Internal Revenue Service in Holtsville, NY, to 99950 in Ketchikan, AK. The easiest ZIP Code to remember? How about 12345, a unique ZIP Code for General Electric in Schenectady, NY.
Quick! What’s that ZIP Code?
The Zoning Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code was launched in 1963 to better process and deliver increasing volumes of U.S. Mail. The first number in the five-digit ZIP Code represents a general geographic area of the nation, “0” in the east, moving
to “9” in the west. The next two numbers represent regional areas, and the final two identify specific Post Offices. In 1983, the ZIP+4 Code was introduced.
157,668
deliveries from one office
The Post Office location with the most possible street deliveries is Heritage Station in San Antonio, TX (78245, 78250, 78251, 78253) — with 157,668 deliveries.
Dock! Dock!
Who's there?
The Postal Service’s only dock-to-dock delivery route is on the Magnolia River in Alabama. A 15-foot contract mail boat delivers to 176 dock-side mailboxes on a 31-mile stretch of the river.
bridging
the gap
The Point Roberts, WA, Post Office can be reached by car only by driving through British Columbia, Canada. Only a boat or float plane can travel directly to the office.
Horse and
pony show
The official name for the Pony Express was the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. Before they were hired, riders had to swear on a Bible not to curse, fight or abuse their animals. The private service was in operation only from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861. It was never part of the U.S. Postal Service but operated as a contract U.S. Mail route during its final months.
That’s no pony, that’s a big horse
The official name for the “Pony Express” was the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Co. Before they were hired, riders had to swear on a Bible not to curse, fight or abuse their animals. The service was in operation only from April 3, 1860, to Oct. 26, 1861. It operated as a U.S. Mail route during its final 4 months.
On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, MO, and Sacramento, CA. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. The Pony Express was by far the most effective way to communicate cross-country —until the telegraph came along. After 18 months in operation, the system was shuttered on October 26, 1861, and the last remaining mail was delivered.
The Pony Express National Historic Trail was designated to preserve the story and routes of this nationally significant trail and to support the associated sites that preserve its history. Learn more at https://www.nps.gov/poex
