A courier is a person or organization that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are government or state agency employees.
Courier in Taipei, Taiwan, organizing parcels for delivery
A hikyaku (courier or postman), Japan, hand-coloured albumen print by Felice Beato, between 1863 and 1877
A Ya-Yieh or Yamen Runner in Western China, 1915
An image of three takeout boxes and one paper bag sitting on the passenger seat of a car while the delivery driver drives in the foreground.
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal systems have generally been established as a government monopoly, with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is usually in the form of an adhesive postage stamp, but a postage meter is also used for bulk mailing.
A postman collecting mail for delivery
Many early post systems consisted of fixed courier routes. Here, a post house on a postal route in the 19th century Finland
The use of the Scinde Dawk adhesive stamps to signify the prepayment of postage began on 1 July 1852 in the Scinde/Sindh district, as part of a comprehensive reform of the district's postal system.
China 4-cent on 100-dollar silver overprint of 1949