Having just moved, I tried to update my address on the Teachers' Pensions website. The site wouldn't let me, and when I rang them, they told me that the site doesn't allow any punctuation marks to be used on their forms.
They don't include them in Crossword grids and often on street nameplates either if you mean apostrophes and hyphens. I think it's not uncommon. Is it essential to what you need to put, chrissa- e.g. could it mean another address gets used instead of yours?
I would never put a comma between my house number and a street name on an input form so I'm not surprised. I don't use a comma when writing my address on a letter either. The full stop after Mr or Mrs doesn't seem to be used now so i rarely bother
I am pretty old-fashioned (e.g. still use apostrophes and capital letters where appropriate in my texts ) but I can remember when we used to put a hyphen in to-day and tomorrow and write Broad St. as something like Broad-st, but i can't remember ever writing a comma between the house number and street name when addressing envelopes and filling forms in
Yes, I still put the commas after the different lines of my address when writing a letter but I have noticed that most organisations don't- for example, I had a letter from my bank and there are no commas shown in my address or after the Dear Mr Factory and Yours sincerely.
I think it's all down to what were known as "time and motion" men. It takes extra time to type a full stop/comma etc, so addresses/abbreviations dropped their commas and stops. I was taught to follow a full stop at the end of a sentence with a double space before the next sentence; now it's a single space.
I think it's more to do with appearances and company style-guides rather than saving ink/time- commas and apostrophes can clutter the page. Companies sometimes choose to omit an apostrophe from their names. It's also more difficult to include apostrophes in email/website addresses.
ginge, you have to blame a Scotsman for that - Andrew Carnegie chaired the US committee for simplification of the language over there - Carnegie was, in fact, fairly dyslexic......
Maybe there is a slow move back again to using apostrophes in signs. A pub I know has been called The Bulls Head for at least 40 years but now has a new modern sign which does include the apostrophe.
I remember seeing an official AA type signpost that pointed to Community Housin'.
I'm not sure if it was reflecting the way people spoke or trying to appeal to younger people, or because they had no stencil or insufficient space for a letter g