The Birmingham postcodes begin with capital letter B followed by two digits. Postcodes are sometimes called ZIP codes. ZIP simply stands for Zoning Improvement Plan. The person behind the invention is known as Robert Aurand Moon. Robert came up with the invention in the 1950s although use of the ZIP codes began in post offices in 1963.

Robert was an American native-born in Williamsport, PA in 1971. He worked with a United State postal Office for seven years as the man in charge of the mail delivery services. His work at the post office could be traced back to 1940s at a time he was inspector in Chicago and Philadelphia post office. It was during this time that Moon began working on the ZIP project.

The first ZIP codes were three digits unlike the current Birmingham postcodes which is a capital B followed by two digits. The postcodes were to help in keeping up with the large volume of mails in the post offices. This system was basically for manual sorting of mails. Moon retired from the postal service in 1977 and relocated to Zellwood, Florida where he spent his last years before he passed on. He died at the age of 83 on April 10, 2001 at the Leesburg Nursing Center. The Postal Code Florida at the time of his death was 34748.

Despite his noble invention, Moon found it difficult to convince millions of letter writers to include postcodes to their mailing addresses. This was in 1963 when the post office began using the coding system. The resistance by the public to include the unfamiliar digits to their mailing addresses could have impaired the postal code system were it not for Mr. Moon.

He did an extraordinary work in convincing the public to adopt the new system. Because of his outstanding achievement in the postal service, the postal service printed his portraits on several postal stamps and publicity materials between 1964 to the year 1986. Currently, over 95 per cent post offices around the world have conformed to the modern worldwide ZIP Code system.

The Zip Code digits changed from the previous three digits to a two digits and letter B code that Birmingham uses today. The Birmingham postcodes for all the cities begin with B with some areas sharing the Zip Code. You can get your area postcodes for Birmingham online or from your nearest post office.