A postcard with a Monaco stamp, the Principality's cheapest souvenir

Sending a postcard feels like something from another century, and in Monaco it makes more sense than almost anywhere. The country has its own postal service, its own stamps since 1885 and even an office that answers letters to Father Christmas. Here’s the practical side, from the postcode to where to buy stamps, and why I’d still post a card home.

One postcode for the whole country

Monaco’s postcode is 98000, and it’s the same everywhere. There isn’t one for Monte-Carlo and another for the Rock, because Monte-Carlo is just a district. You’ll see it on every official address, from the Casino’s, ‘Place du Casino, 98000 Monaco’, to any hotel’s. If you’re wondering why such a small country has its own postcode, dialling code and internet domain, the answer lies in its sovereignty, which I explain in is Monaco a country.

La Poste Monaco and its offices

Post is handled by La Poste Monaco, which offers the same products as France’s La Poste, letters, parcels and financial services. The mail service itself, with sorting and PO boxes, is at 1 Avenue de Fontvieille, in the Îlot Pasteur. For the public there are offices across the districts, and in its notices the government mentions, for instance, those at Les Moulins, the Palais de la Scala and the Grimaldi Forum. I won’t give opening hours because they vary by office, and the full list is on La Poste Monaco’s website. So if you’re carrying a parcel, check the nearest office online before you set off rather than trusting to luck on the high street.

One detail worth knowing. La Poste Monaco publishes its closures every year, and in both 2025 and 2026 it shut its offices on 14 July, France’s national day, as well as on Monaco’s own holidays. The holiday calendar is in Monaco opening hours and public holidays.

Stamps, a souvenir with history

Monaco has issued stamps since 1885, when Charles III created the first ones, and today they’re produced by the Office des Timbres. Several series come out every year. On 5 September 2026, for example, stamps went on sale celebrating Monaco’s International Cat Show, with a Persian cat, and Les Baux-de-Provence, the marquisate Louis XIII granted in 1642 to the son of Honoré II. By tradition, the title of Marquis des Baux is still carried by the hereditary prince, today Prince Jacques.

The stamps are sold at post offices, the Office des Timbres, the Stamp and Coin Museum, stamp dealers and even the Carré d’Encre in Paris. The museum is in Fontvieille, costs €3 and takes about an hour, and I cover it alongside the coins in Monaco euro coins.

Serious collectors have a date of their own. Every two years the museum hosts Monacophil, the Principality’s international stamp exhibition; the latest ran from 5 to 7 December 2024, with more than 80 stands. The museum itself, which Prince Rainier III wanted on the Fontvieille terraces, opened in 1996 around his personal collections, so the love of stamps here comes from the very top.

Father Christmas’s letter office

This is one of my favourite things about Monaco’s post. Every December La Poste Monaco opens Father Christmas’s letter office, which in 2025 ran from 1 to 22 December for the nineteenth year running. Children just drop their letter or drawing in any post box in the country, for instance the one in the Métropole shopping centre, addressed to any fanciful spot at the North Pole, and the office replies to each one individually.

The only condition is that the child’s first name, surname and address are clearly written on the envelope, letter or drawing. If you’re travelling as a family at Christmas, it’s a lovely free thing to do, and it fits with everything in Christmas in Monaco.

Why I’d still send a postcard

Because it’s cheap, because the stamp comes from a tiny country with its own philately and because, unlike a fridge magnet, it isn’t mass-produced for the airport. Buy the card wherever you like, the stamp at a post office or the museum, and drop it in a Monegasque post box. It’ll reach home as a genuine souvenir of the trip, with a stamp your friends won’t have seen before.