The United States Post Office Department began installing public mail collection boxes in the 1850s outside post offices and on street corners in large Eastern cities. Because these boxes were lightweight and easy to steal, they disappeared frequently later boxes were made of cast iron and could weigh up to 45 kilograms (99 lb). The first public letter boxes (post boxes) in Russia appeared in 1848 in St. One has been painted in the 'wrong' town. One was defaced briefly by a vandal with graffiti. In 2012, to celebrate Olympic gold medals for Team GB, selected boxes were painted gold. The first boxes to be painted red were in London in July 1874, although it would be nearly 10 years before all the boxes had been repainted. Between 18 the hexagonal Penfold post box became the standard design for pillar boxes and it was during this period that red was first adopted as the standard colour. Green was adopted as the standard colour for the early Victorian post boxes. In 1859 the design was improved, and this became the first National Standard pillar box. In 1856, Richard Redgrave of the Department of Science and Art designed an ornate pillar box for use in London and other large cities.

In 1853 the first pillar box in the United Kingdom was installed at Botchergate, Carlisle. Roadside wall boxes first appeared in 1857 as a cheaper alternative to pillar boxes, especially in rural districts. In the British Isles, the first red pillar post boxes were erected in Guernsey in 1852. A note attached to an old private posting box in St John University ( York)

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