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A machine-printed bar or dot pattern encoding a delivery point.
Also known as: Sorting barcode, Postcode barcode
A postal routing barcode is applied by a sorting machine after an item enters the system, not by the sender. It encodes the delivery point read from the address — in Britain traditionally as a pattern of tall and short bars in fluorescent ink on the face or reverse, elsewhere as a block of dots or a two-dimensional code. Because it is added by the operator rather than printed by the sender, its presence means the address has been machine-read successfully.
Encodes the delivery point read from the address, and is applied by the sorting machine rather than by the sender — so its presence means the address was read successfully by machine.
Contexts: History, Public information
Is frequently printed in fluorescent ink that is faint or invisible in ordinary light, which is why most people have handled thousands of these codes without noticing one.
Contexts: History, Public information
A row of narrow vertical bars of two or three different heights, or a block of small dots, printed low on an envelope face or reverse.
Both are machine-applied postal markings.