StampPrinters.info: Letter Box Histories

This web-page details the chronological development of the letter box in several countries from around the world. It does not claim completeness for the listed countries, but will hopefully prove useful to collectors.

The compiler would welcome further information - if it is not included in the next update, then it is because you have not responded to this request! Please help your fellow collectors by sharing your knowledge.

Argentina
Letter Boxes for Pick-pockets. Argentinian letter boxes have large slits for mail. When the collection has been made and sorting is undertaken, three piles emerge, namely letters, printed matter and 'documents'. This third pile comprises wallets and handbags stolen by thieves and, in 1969, up to 200 items a day were posted thus!

Australia
1856 In New South Wales a circular pillar, designed by T W Levinge and cast by Robert Bubb and Sons of Sydney, was in use by this year.

Austria
1817     (1 June) Up to this date sender and recipient had to pay postage in equal shares, after date addressee alone paid postage.
1850     (1 June) Stamps introduced.
1850     (1 June) All letters had to be prepaid when posted.
1850s   2 types of PO - government offices and postmasters in the private sector. Each had their own LB's. All coloured yellow - as were the mail coaches.
1870    'Mainz Weber' type LB introduced at Vienna PO.
1890    'Wiczek' type LB introduced.
1899    'Paris' type in use until 1918.
1918    'Braun' type introduced.
1948    'Dworschak' type in use until 1980.
1980    'Mailbox 80' type introduced.
1980s 23,600 boxes in use. Boxes are currently blue.
----        Red boxes for pneumatic mail.
----        Blue boxes for airmail.

Belgium
1808    A slit was placed at every Post house.
1836    By this year boxes sited away from the Post Office were at every commune without a Letter Receiving House.
1840's Letter boxes held a rubber stamp. An impression would be made by the postman as proof that the box had been emptied
1847    That September all LB's were on commune buildings or churches.
1848    Street letter boxes introduced.
1849    (1 July) Stamps introduced. An increase in letter posting resulted in more boxes being required.
1850    (April) Every railway station provided with an LB.
1850    By this year cast iron boxes were erected in the streets.
1852    (July) Letter boxes on TPOs for receipt of letters before departure and at stops en-route. A handstamp or cachet in the top left of letter showed what town the letter had been posted in. Bureaux Ambulants.
1866    By this year a new style green letter box was introduced.
1867    Portable letter boxes installed on PSVs (Buses).
1893    Sunday labels introduced. They were attached to stamps (in the same manner as Israeli Tabs) for the sender to indicate NON-delivery on the Lord's Day. Inscribed in French and Flemish 'Do Not Deliver on a Sunday'. It was all part of a campaign to reduce Sunday work. It lasted until 1914.
1897    Cast iron 'Prismatic' letter boxes introduced..
Modern letter boxes are of the wall box type in sheet steel and are enamelled red.

France
1653    Parisian boxes erected by Villayer.
1653    The letters were enclosed in special postpaid envelopes bought at special Post Offices. The scheme was a flop and no covers are extant.
1829    Letter boxes introduced generally in towns and villages.
1829    Poste Rurale introduced which extended posts to every commune.
1829    The Post Office were obliged to maintain at least one   letter box per town, preferably at the Town Hall.
1829    Rural Letter Carriers collected mail and took it to the nearest Post Office.
1849    Stamps introduced, resulting in extra letters being sent.
1850    Belgian style letter box installed in Paris as an experiment.
1871    Extra letter boxes allowed at a cost to the village. Sited at tobacconists, stations and crossroads.
1884    Mayors ordered to indicate next collection time on letter doors.
1890s Letter boxes introduced on Paris tramcars.
1899    New style household letter boxes introduced. They accepted mail going in or out.
1900    Gallic cock style letter boxes introduced. Later Pagoda style, similar to cock, introduced.
1934    By this year letter boxes were appearing on Mobile PO's.
1961    Letter boxes coloured blue until this date.
1961    Letter box colour changed to yellow.
1993    The Universal Postal Union advises that the French Post Office have produced two intelligent post boxes. Located in the Champs Elysees they have liquid crystal displays that depict the time of the next collection and details of the nearest post office. Also, they can talk in French and English and incorporate a solar powered microscope. Whatever next!
----     Special LB's for motorcyclists.
----     Letter boxes in shops are not uncommon in France

Germany
17th C Letter boxes at Post houses.
1766    Post box erected in a Berlin PO, but not effective as postage had to be pre-paid at Pots Office counter before posting.
19th C By this time Rhineland letter boxes in the French style were erected.
1818    All letter boxes were to have been removed as they were being used for sending begging letters to the King.
1823    A Royal Edict decreed the general introduction of letter boxes.
1834    Before this date letter boxes were not allowed to be used for sending letters to Ludwig I.
1834    From this year until 1841 local letters were not allowed to be posted in letter boxes.
1841    Bavarian PO expanded the use of letter boxes due to an increase in trade.
1842    Letter boxes for unpaid letters erected wherever possible.
1842    Letters for abroad not to be deposited in letter boxes. Instead they had to be pre-paid at a PO.
1845    Letter boxes at non-PO buildings. Grocers shops were preferred as the boxes could be kept under observation.
1846    Letter boxes at Munich and Augsburg railway stations. The inner container was put on the train with a postal conductor. The box was not opened en-route.
1849    Bavaria introduces stamps as a direct result of the need to be able to post letters pre-paid.
1853    Bavarian railways TPO's given posting aperture on the side of carriages.
1853    Metal letter boxes erected by the Berlin PO.
1858    Every community had to provide a letter box by law.
1858    Bavarian PO set-up a rural postal service for the delivery and collection from remote hamlets. Simple wooden types were used.
1859    One village rebelled because the bread man brought the post every Tuesday, which was considered adequate.
1867    Metal letter boxes introduced in Bavaria.
1875    Fancy boxes in a renaissance style introduced.
1870s Large towns had special horse-drawn letter box collection carts.
1877    In Berlin, bags were introduced in place of containers within. The bottom fell away and letters dropped into bag.
1886    Bicycles first used for the collection of mail from letter boxes.
1900    Pillar boxes introduced.
1962    100,000 letter boxes in use.
1962    Fibre-glass letter boxes start to take-over from metal ones. They were yellow in colour.
----        Wars of Independence. Old letter boxes kept in place but concealed from the Berlin authorities.

Ireland
1985 The Irish 1986 �Love� stamp has the experimental yellow band (matching An Post bands, The experiment lasted 1985/1986 only and applied to boxes in the inner city area between the canals.

Netherlands, The
1616    Oldest mention of skippers of boats to Hoorn and Enkhuizen permitted to hang two boxes at the Pile House for collection before departure.
17th C Letter boxes were commonplace in towns.
17th C Postmasters provided letter boxes for convenience of senders at their houses or at place of boat departure.
17/18C Amsterdam was littered with boxes belonging to boat skippers. The boxes were of limited use as they were for one destination only!
1807    A postal law dictated that only appointed officials could collect letters. A monopoly had therefore been established.
1810    Every Post Office to have a letter box.
1850    Street type letter box designed to go against a wall as towns did not have foot paths.
1850    Privacy of concern to public as the secrecy of the mails was not sacrosanct. An inner drum was therefore removed and taken, locked, to the local Post Office.
1851    Postage stamps introduced.
1857    Collection times affixed to boxes.
1869    Separate letter boxes for printed matter.
1869    A second aperture was fitted to letter boxes of 1850.
1870    New type letter box incorporated the 2nd aperture.
1879    Collecting carriages on wheels were introduced.
1893    The inner drum was substituted for a mailbag.
1893    Uniforms given to mail collectors.
1898    Colour of letter boxes was bronze green, but Amsterdam alone chose red, as in England.
1907    The quantity of boxes was doubled to cope with an expanding population.
1908    Automatic clearing system introduced, with postmen instructed on their use.
1914    Red became the official colour for letter boxes.
1920s   Royal Arms removed from letterboxes.
1920s   Posters affixed to all letterboxes of the 1850 type (why?).
1962    Polyester town boxes began replacing the 1850s type letter boxes.

New Zealand
1855    Postage stamps issued.
1859    Pillar receiving boxes introduced. Improved versions of the Australian Levinge box installed at Wellington and Auckland.
1860    Private boxes fitted at Lyttelton and Christchurch post offices.
1868    At least eight pillar boxes in use by this year.
1868    Boxes painted white in colour initially, but subsequently red.
1880s   Penfold look-alikes introduced. Made by P&D Duncan.
1890s   VR posting box enamelled plates brought into use.
1904    Round-topped metal rural delivery boxes began to appear, with its red metal flag. Settlers were expected to provide their own at the roadside.
1910    Over 150 iron pillar boxes in use in NZ.
1910    At about this time wooden boxes started to be used. (Referred to as 'hutches'.)
1911    The Post and Telegraph Department provided private      rural boxes at fifteen shillings each (.75p) to anyone who wanted one. Made in Canada. The flag was to indicate that mail was awaiting collection, not that mail had been delivered.
1911    (September) Red officially chosen as letterbox colour. Berger's Signal Red Paint was used, finished with
a carriage varnish. Boxes, at this time, were painted once a year.
1951    A survey showed that 71 iron pillars still in use. Due to dogs fouling the bases of boxes most were
removed from service.
1976    (6 December). A Rapid Box System introduced at Wellington Postal Centre to ensure a rapid delivery of urgent letters to Postal Centre private box holders. Delivery made within one hour of posting.
1983    Mail Overflow Boxes introduced. Painted green they are made of wood and are used by postmen who deposit some of their 'walk' and pick it up once they have delivered their first mailbag. Previously, bags were left at convenient points en-route, but mail was being stolen from them. Now we know where the British Post Office got their pouch box idea from!
1987    The establishment of NZ Post Limited resulted in Community Mail Boxes (CMB's) being established. They comprise nests of lockable sheet steel private boxes for use in rural areas and follow the Canadian pattern. A large box for parcels is accessible to all box holders and mail for collection may be left at the CMB.
1988    Box colour changed to red, white and blue from red on an as and when needed basis.
1988    3,700 boxes in use.
1988    (June). Larger Post Offices have Fastpost mail boxes with distinctive red and black vertical bars on them.
1988    (October). Metal post boxes issued for use at street corners in place of the wooden 'hutch' boxes so familiar to this country.   All wooden boxes to be replaced in three to four years.
1989    (February). BoxLink service commenced. It is intended to be used by businesses who post large volumes of mail to private boxes and bags. Special posting boxes with big red arrows on them on a white background are used for this special class of mail. An annual fee is charged and postage rates are cheaper. The bulk of all business mail is addressed to a Post Office Box.
----    Late fee letterboxes fitted to Guard's vans of NZ Railways, but they have gradually been phased away. The 'Silver Star' express between Wellington and Auckland still has a late fee posting box
----    The Rural Mail Delivery service distributes mail up to six times a week to communities and farms across
NZ to over 85,000 mail box holders.

Qatar
- Qatar does not have a door-to-door delivery service
1987 (Spring). A huge bank of numbered personal mailboxes opened at Doha postal headquarters. The locked
boxes are operated by magnetically encoded cards with personal numbers. Management information is obtained via the card, such as how frequently the box is accessed. The boxes have been manufactured in Scotland.

Sweden
1835    Boxes introduced on ships following a Royal proclamation.
1850s   Boxes on stagecoaches (probably).
1855    By this date LB's at Post Offices in towns.
1856    Letter boxes on railway coaches.
1868    Stagecoach drivers equipped with LB's around their neck.
1869    Before this date padlocks were on boxes.
1869    Wall boxes with bases that dropped away and allowed a bag to be placed underneath.
1870    From this date until 1890 an envelope motif appeared on letter box flaps.
1890    A Crown over post horn logo introduced on letter box flaps.
1906    Letter boxes on tramcars.
1912    Letter box as on yellow lettercard postal stationery item.
1988    Stockholm. Blue boxes inscribed LOKALPOST for any part of Stockholm with postcode prefix beginning 1.
1988    Stockholm white boxes inscribed POSTGIRO for Giro payments and same day crediting to account. They were constantly robbed!

Switzerland
           Swiss letterboxes are all set in/on walls.
1832    Letter boxes introduced in important towns without a Post Office
1937    First Mobile PO introduced with posting facilities on board.
----      Swiss letter boxes have recently been modified to accept roll film. A specially shaped widening of the slot is filed on old boxes; whilst new boxes come with this facility.

Taiwan
1968 An article about Taiwan and its postal services extolled the virtues of a new Prompt Delivery Service, which involved the use of a special letter box; the carriers departure and arrival time being controlled by the use of time recorders or punched cards, motor cycle delivery and personal notification by the carrier to the addressee.

Does any reader know whether there were any special markings to indicate that mail had been posted by this method?

United States of America
1870s   Dime Box, Texas was so named because the post office in town did not keep a supply of postage stamps
and so it became the practice to throw mail into the box with a 10c piece (a 'dime')
1892    The United States Post Office invented an ingenious box that was operated by a time-lock, which automatically displayed a ticket showing the time of the next collection. It also stamped the exact time of posting on each letter as it was dropped into the letter box. This can be considered to be the first attempt at a mechanical time-keeper, even if not for franking purposes. In the same way, a Mr Fuller offered a machine to the British Post Office in 1895.    This latter idea was turned down by the Duke of Norfolk, "for fear it should be robbed."
1987    New lightweight delivery vans introduced by the USPS made by Grumman Corporation. They incorporated the ability to allow the postal service to develop an integrated modular container system so that mail receptacles may be removed from inside street collection boxes and fitted snugly into the vehicle.

Vatican City
---- Vatican City authorities have a fine that they give to motorists who park in front of a pillar box. Part of the fine goes to the Post Office as compensation for loss of business. Has any reader seen a copy of the parking ticket?

(Previously unpublished, written 2002)