Post Office

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Post Office UK public corporation formed in 1969 from the General Post Office (GPO). Mail delivery, its sole function until the 19th century, is still a Post Office monopoly. Private post, at rates related to distance, started in 1635; Hill's penny post of 1840 standardized the rate. The GPO set up a savings bank in 1861, a telegraph service in 1870, and nationalized existing private telephone companies in 1912.

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