3 ms·
The mapping zip codes to city is not strictly 1:1. I don't have a better source for this, but the description in Wikipedia states: "The Postal Service designat
by rhplus 15y ago
The mapping zip codes to city is not strictly 1:1. I don't have a better source for this, but the description in Wikipedia states:
"The Postal Service designates one _default_ place name for each ZIP code... Additional place names may be recognized as _acceptable_ for a certain ZIP code."
This means that someone may continue to write their address as Smalltown, EG, 12345, when technically it is Bigtown, EG, 12345. Of course, this would not be the case with zip+4, which like the UK postal code system, identifies a much smaller grouping of addresses.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_code#ZIP_codes_and_previous_zoning_lines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_code#ZIP_codes_and_previous...
- jfruh 15y agoHmm, but if I understand correctly how this all works, even if you vote and pay taxes in Smalltown, if Bigtown is the default placename for 12345, the post office will still happily deliver mail to your address even if the envelope says "Bigtown, EG 12345" on it. Of course, humans care about this stuff more than you can imagine. There was a minor kerfuffle in the Buffalo area a few years ago when a woman bought a house in Lancaster (an upscale suburb) only to find that the default placename for her zip code was Depew (a working-class suburb). She somehow managed to get someone at the newspaper to write a story about her plight, which included a note that her copy of Gourmet Magazine came late because she insisted on putting "Lancaster" in the city name. I'm not sure why that would affect anything unless she was also deliberately giving them the wrong zip code though.