They Built These For a Reason

It ends up that this small ledge actually had a super handy purpose in the past. It was always about having enough change for postage.

Wait, People Used to Leave Money in Their Mailboxes?

Yep. Loose coins. Right there in the box. Unlocked. And no, it wasn’t a shady side hustle or a neglected piggy bank.

Before online postage, forever stamps and apps could track every envelope from here to Kalamazoo, people in rural areas either had to use some ingenuity. Back when you wrote letters regularly (those were the days!), if you lived out in the country and wanted to send a letter but didn’t have precisely the right amount of postage (and didn’t feel like driving to town to buy a one-cent stamp), you just stuck a few coins in the box with the letter.

Mail carriers — which in effect were the part-time postmasters — would pick up the letter, calculate the proper amount, slap a stamp from their own stash on it, pocket the coins or give you some change back. That little shelf? It was the coin spot, so the money didn’t rattle around in there like a loose marble.

Can you even fathom attempting that today? Nowadays, if you leave even a coupon peeking out of your mailbox, it’s gone in five minutes.

A System Built on Trust… and Common Sense

I am still amazed that this was simply the way of things. No special locks. No receipts. Terribly simple, and very powerful, so long as there’s a mysterious pact between people and their postman.

And honestly, it makes sense. Many of those mail carriers had been working the same route for years. They knew the families. The dogs. If I had to guess, even the names of everybody’s cows. There was a relationship of sorts there, one that didn’t hinge on barcodes or tracking numbers or QR codes. A tin of coins and a note in her own hand: “Add postage, please. Thanks, Edna.”

It’s sort of heartwarming, don’t you think?

So That’s What That Shelf Was For

After I learned the back story, that odd little shelf inside the mailbox instantly became one of my favorite forgotten features. It’s so simple. So thoughtful. This, too, wasn’t just a design decision. It was a little built-in reminder of a different kind of postal service — slower, perhaps, but far more personal.

I can still hear my grandma talking about how she’d put coins and a note for the mailman in the 60s. She stored a small pill tin in the box — I believe it was once filled with mints — and put some nickels in it. And she always said that the mailman (Mr. Jansen? would send it back with the exact change, along with a note, if he had time.

Try picturing that now. I’ve had Amazon packages left in the bush next to my porch. Not even on the porch. Near it. Different world.

Funny How Little Things Stick Around

Most people today would not even know what that shelf was for unless they were told. I didn’t. But now I kinda love it. It’s that little, easily missed reminder that there was a time, long, long ago, when it wasn’t all automated or tracked or optimized; when potential excess in credit, bail and fat wasn’t so easily constrained or calculated. They were… human.

And hey, if you’ve still got one of those old mailboxes lying around, maybe look inside. That shelf? It’s a small, quiet story about trust, community and the simple genius of leaving change for postage, that’s what.