CL49

[davemarc]

In the unlikely event that I'm not the last one to discover this, 

"The earliest international posts of the Middle Ages were organised by
trade guilds for their members.  Among the first--if not *the* first--was
the Metzger Post organised by the guild of butchers in Germany in the
twelfth century.  One of the conditions attached to the privilege of
setting up as a butcher was the possession of a horse and undertaking to
carry mail.  To the butchers' guild is given the credit for having first
used a curved horn to announce the arrival of the mails--the posthorn which
features in many of the emblems of the postal services of the world to this
day.  The Metzger Post survived till the end of the sixteenth century, when
it was absorbed into the official service of the Holy Roman Empire."

>From The Guinness Book of Stamps by James Mackey (1982)

I believe that means it merged with Thurn und Taxis.

davemarc (who realizes he just brought a copy of CL49 to a discussion of
M&D)