Japan Post offers bank and life insurance services . There are also regional postcards of irregular sizes called “Gotochi”. You can also get free mail forwarding for one year in case of moving. I wonder if these services are unique or other countries have them ?
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No doesn’t happen in the UK! You can only get parcels collected from your house if you’re paying for courier delivery but normally either you stick stuff in a post box or take it to the post office.
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I wouldn’t mind if someone sent me a postcard with one of these codes, I think they’re interesting! In the US, can only print letter postage through a third party service like stamps.com. Those services have a monthly fee and and are usually only used by businesses.
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The US also has free mail forwarding for a year. (Well if you do it online they do a $1 charge to your credit card for verification, but it’s essentially free.)
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Another USPS service that people may not know about. During the Holidays, USPS also runs a campaign called Operation Santa.
During this time, children can write a letter to Santa Claus. You can read the letters online, and if you like even adopt a letter and send the writer a letter and gift.
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My mum did once the same thing! But I don’t know if it is a common practice here in Finland. 
My mum had to post something and she was short of stamps, so she put her letter in a small transparent plastic bag alongside required money for a stamp (nb this was maybe 15 years ago when it was still cheap to mail letters and cards) and mailed it from our postbox (my parents live in the countryside). Next day the kind mail carrier had included a receipt for the paid postage with her incoming mail.
The Finnish post experimented with lawn mowning in order to cope with diminishing mail and letter delivery, meaning you could book and have a mail carrier to cut your grass. They even issued a stamp about it. I have absolutely no idea if the board of the Finnish post had been high on something or just desperate when they introduced this. Thank God it was dropped after a few years. I don’t want mail carrier cut my grass, I want them deliver my post efficiently. To make matters worse, the Finnish post even proposed that mail carriers could start to carry out tasks of practical nurses, but the proposal caused a hullabaloo and raised many ethical questions so they hushed quickly about it. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I heard about those, please don’t tell that the postal service in other countries is as crazy as ours?
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German Post experimented with visiting (and chatting with) old people. So they wouldn’t be as alone and checking if they’re still okay or need further help. It was a flop 
That was in 2018.
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This is one of the best stamps I’ve ever come across! Thank you for sharing
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The Swiss Post office also has a postcard creation service. Via the app you can send one free postcard a day within Switzerland and Liechtenstein, simply uploading a photo and putting your message in which will be printed on the card (along with a small advertisement).
Czech Post offers two options of personalized stamps. You can get pairs of stamps where the stamp with your picture has no value so you have to send it with the other stamp.
You can also get proper stamps with your design but the minimum order is 10000 stamps
There is also a website and an app where you can send a postcard with your picture. The quality is very good, even the back side. I always choose font that looks the most like handwriting and blue colour so it looks alright. I enjoy sending such postcards from holiday.
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I think I once recieved such a postcard. They are somehow weird. Everything is printed. The stamp, the postmark, the message, the address… everything. The quality is good but I prefer classical postcards.
I don’t care how crazy the idea is…I want to see mail/package carriers being trained to administer Covid-19 vaccines! 
I want to be able to reach my arm out my front door, get my shot, and bring in a handful of postcards, all in one go! 
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As I’m reading this, I’m reminded that, when I lived in England, I had my Internet and landline through the Post Office.
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No mail is picked up from homes or businesses in Canada.
You’ve got to slog up hill, in 10 feet of snow, both ways, to get it to a mailbox.
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Ours is not really offering anything super cool (they are focusing more and more on business mail / delivering online shoppings, instead on mail services between private persons), but they do have something at least.
Rural mail carriers: if you live in rural area like me you can call them (or use internet) to book a pick up or delivery for your mail. I have never used this service as it requires for me to be at home when they show up and it is much easier to just take the mail to town. I have however got few deliveries marked as “rural carrier delivery” so it is still a thing, even thought online services have mostly took over of it. They claim that the pick up is a free service, but you have to of course pay the postage either beforehand (stamps) or to the mail carrier when they show up.
Your own photo into a postcard: A service where you can submit your digital photo and the address + whatever text you want written on it, and after you pay the fee they will print it out and send directly to the address you gave them.
They also have separated, similar service where you can create information brochures etc. and they will print and send it.
Direct sending: you can pay the postage online, print out the recipe and stick it on the packet/letter, and then just drop it off at office. I have never used this one either, because it is pretty much same thing to just use stamps instead and people like stamps more.
Re-directing mail: You can re-direct your mail either temporary (e.g. to holiday home) or just select if you want your packets to home or to any specific pick up place. I have love-hate feelings toward this one because sometimes they make me select twice, which means the delivery is getting delayed, but it has been also cool because sometimes I can select to pick up from the city which means I get my stuff earlier. This service is tied to the app, so it works nicely if you use their app (which is great one so not sure why anybody wouldn’t use it) but if you don’t use it, then it is super annoying.
They technically has address change service too, but if I recall right it is actually a shared service with some other businesses so they are in it but they are not the only ones providing it. If you move you can let them know and they will for free to alert the businesses you selected and give your updated address to them (when I moved last time I asked them to alert my insurance and bank, and that worked fine). They will also return all the mail sent to your old address for free, but if you want your mail re-directed to you, then you will have to pay.
The postal services used to offer also bank services before, but that ended back in 1990s
Oh, stamps are fun, but this is interesting too. Different.
The lady who sent me the card works six days a week and all the shops in her city are closed so I can completely understand why she used the code option.
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This was the original idea behind “mailcarriers as practical nurses”. Then the board of the Finnish post suggested that “hey, when mail carriers visit old people, they could measure blood pressure or give medicines at the same go”, but this raised some ethical concerns which led to wrapping up the idea before the post could implement it.
Doesn’t the Red Cross or other similar organisations visit old people in Finland and Germany?