One of the most famous postal orders in history - the one alleged to have been cashed by George Archer-Shee.
The United Kingdom was the first country in the world to issue postal orders on 1 January 1881. They were the brainchild of the president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, John Skirrow Wright which was to enable poorer people to buy goods and services by post, as they were unlikely to have bank accounts. The rich had bank accounts and could write cheques. A delegation of the Birmingham Chamber went to the annual meeting of chambers of commerce in London and John Skirrow Wright presented the idea, complete with all the details on how it would work including all the postal order values proposed. At first London bankers were against the idea, thinking it would affect their businesses, and the idea was rejected. However, eventually, the bankers realised that the people who would use postal orders were not their customers and therefore no threat to their business. Consequently, at the Annual Meeting a year later John Skirrow Wright presented the idea again and this time it was accepted and the postal order system was started exactly as Skirrow Wright and Birmingham Chamber had proposed.
Five-shilling British postal order overprinted for use in Nigeria used in 1947 - 3d additional poundage to be paid in Nigeria
In 1881, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland included Ireland but in 1922, three-quarters of the island became independent as the Irish Free State and began its own independent issues of postal orders. Since 1922, British postal orders have been issued in the four parts of the UK (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales). In the 1880s and 1890s, the issue of postal orders spread to most parts of what was then the British Empire. As time went on, the issue of postal orders declined in most parts of the British Empire, later the British Commonwealth. There are still a number of countries that are issuing postal orders.
Since 1945, the use of postal orders has been declining, as postal orders were a popular form of payment for lottery tickets, in events such as the football pools and for payment for bets on horse racing. The postal orders that were issued from a football pools machine have a perfinned series of numbers and letters. Occasionally, these turn up from time to time. These are sought after by postal order collectors.
Some companies have issued promotional postal orders (PPO) with the permission of Royal Mail as part of their promotions. Such companies include Reader's Digest and Cinzano. These postal orders are classified in a sub-group of their own. They were all issued throughout Great Britain, with one notable exception, the Fife Council PPOs, only issued in Fife, Scotland, which were used to pay for shopping at the stores that were part of the scheme. The Fife Council PPOs were introduced in 1996 and were discontinued on 31 March 2001.
In late 2002, the Royal Mail decided to introduce a series of gift postal orders. These have been retained. Since then, Royal Mail introduced a series of postal orders which can be used for purchases at Argos stores. These have since been withdrawn.
Postal orders in literature
The 1946 play The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan, and the two subsequent films based on it, features the story of a schoolboy trying to clear his name over the theft of a five-shilling postal order. The story was loosely based on the real-life George Archer-Shee case.
Postal orders were also referenced by W. H. Auden in the opening words of Night Mail (1936).
Resurgence and revamp
Postal orders are now[when?] becoming increasingly popular as a form of payment, thanks to the auction websites such as eBay, and it is much safer for the seller than paying by cheque, as postal orders cannot bounce. The vendor does not have to wait for clearance, which happens with cheques.
In April 2006, the postal order system underwent a revamp, enabling individual post offices to print postal orders on demand in any value from 50p through to 250 pounds, instead of the previous 50p to 20 pounds fixed range. As a result, single postal orders can now be purchased for odd denominations such as 66p or 99p, rather than having to make up odd amounts through a combination of pre-printed denominations and affixed stamps. This has made British postal orders similar to the money orders issued by post offices in the United States and many other countries.
A post office is a public facility that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional services, which vary by country. These include providing and accepting government forms, and processing government services and fees. The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster.
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage, who then affix the stamp to the face or address-side of any item of mail—an envelope or other postal cover —that they wish to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark or cancellation mark—in modern usage indicating date and point of origin of mailing—is applied to the stamp and its left and right sides to prevent its reuse. The item is then delivered to its addressee.
Postal codes used in the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were adopted nationally between 11 October 1959 and 1974, having been devised by the General Post Office. A full postcode is known as a "postcode unit" and designates an area with several addresses or a single major delivery point.
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom was a Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs. This would subsequently extend to telecommunications and broadcasting.
A money order is a payment order for a pre-specified amount of money. As it is required that the funds be prepaid for the amount shown on it, it is a more trusted method of payment than a cheque.
Post Office Ltd is a retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of products including postage stamps and banking to the public through its nationwide network of post office branches. The company is owned by UK Government Investments.
The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) provides a postal service to HM Forces, separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world. BFPO moved from its original base at Inglis Barracks, Mill Hill to its current base at RAF Northolt in northwest London in 2007.
A cheque, or check, is a document that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing the cheque, known as the drawer, has a transaction banking account where their money is held. The drawer writes the various details including the monetary amount, date, and a payee on the cheque, and signs it, ordering their bank, known as the drawee, to pay that person or company the amount of money stated.
A post box, also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service. The term post box can also refer to a private letter box for incoming mail.
A cashier's check is a check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank's own funds and signed by a cashier. Cashier's checks are treated as guaranteed funds because the bank, rather than the purchaser, is responsible for paying the amount. They are commonly required for real estate and brokerage transactions.
A postal order, postal note or money order is a financial instrument usually intended for sending money through the mail. It is purchased at a post office and is payable at another post office to the named recipient. A fee for the service, known as poundage, is paid by the purchaser. In the United States, this is known as a postal money order. Postal orders are not legal tender, but a type of promissory note, similar to a cheque.
Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solution of pre-payment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters. Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp.
Sort codes are the domestic bank codes used to route money transfers between financial institutions in the United Kingdom, and in the Republic of Ireland. They are six-digit hierarchical numerical addresses that specify clearing banks, clearing systems, regions, large financial institutions, groups of financial institutions and ultimately resolve to individual branches. In the UK they continue to be used to route transactions domestically within clearance organisations and to identify accounts, while in the Republic of Ireland they have been deprecated and replaced by the SEPA systems and infrastructure.
Postal orders were issued in Ireland from 1881 until they were discontinued in late 2001 just before the change over to the Euro. The current alternative is the An Post Postal Money Order which serves an equivalent purpose.
The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited (C&CCC) is a UK membership-based industry body whose 11 members are the UK clearing banks. The company has managed the cheque clearing system in England and Wales since 1985, in all of Great Britain since 1996 when it took over responsibility for managing the Scottish cheque clearing as well, and in the whole of the United Kingdom since the introduction of the Image Clearing System in 2019.
John Skirrow Wright was one of the prominent pioneers and social improvers of the 19th century in Birmingham, England; and inventor of the postal order. He was involved in many aspects of Birmingham's mid-Victorian life that were intended for the benefit of its citizens, including the General Hospital, the Chamber of Commerce, the School of Art, the Children's Hospital, the early Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund, and the Blue Coat School.
Country definitives, formerly known as regional postage stamps of Great Britain are the postage stamps issued for regions of the United Kingdom, reflecting the regional identity of the various countries and islands of the British isles.
Postal orders were issued in South Africa from 31 May 1910. South Africa issued both its own postal orders and British postal orders.
A promotional postal order (PPO) is a special type of postal order that is issued in the United Kingdom by various companies in conjunction with the Royal Mail to promote their goods and services. These have been issued at various times since the 1970s.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Barbados.
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