Postage Stamp Chat Board & Stamp Bulletin Board Forum
 

I've been through the postcards at the local market again.

Some cathedral interiors:



St Martin Cathedral at Ypres.

Westminster Abbey 1970.

Westminster Abbey about 1910.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Artwork panel at Corinth Museum.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Corner figure, Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

New York street scene 1907.

The cards above will be posted on the giveaway thread shortly if anyone wants to claim them.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

And this one from the transitional period between the time no-one was permitted to write messages on the front of the card ... and the time everyone could:





Also illustrates which sides the postal authorities considered to be the front and the back of a postcard.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Lions Gate Bridge and Victoria Seattle Steamer
Front bearing Canada QE2 4c purple tied by slogan cancellation

Very surprising find for my Freetowns* of the World project ... right here at my local marketplace:

* Villefranche in French.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

For Muruk, here is a list of "Freetowns" in the world, unknown if complete:

http://www.fallingrain.com/world/a/F/r/e/e/t

Some old paintings on postcards, also from the local market.







I will be putting these up in the giveaway forum shortly.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Thanks, Doug. A few there I don't have on my list yet.

I also do language variants ... Freeburg(h), Freiburg, Villefranche, Svobodgorod, etc. I'm getting quite a list together.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

I should have mentioned that the Falling Rain website makes separate lists for each diacritical mark, so that if there were a "Fréetown" somewhere, it would not appear in the list I cited. But you could create a list in which each item began with "Fré...".

Thanks Doug,

I've had a play around and figured how it works. It will be a very useful tool.

Unfortunately, it has errors ... duplicate listings with incorrect spelling, but I think I will be able to work around those.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Post card showing a young and rather sad looking Prince of Wales (perhaps he was contemplating his future duties as KGVI ).

This was part of a series featuring a full face KGV and showed the first issued Australian stamp design (not the Roo and Map series as many people think):

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Tony

The Prince of Wales is the eldest son, so this is actually the boy who became King Edward VIII (pic from wikipedia)

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Ahah, thanks Ian

No wonder he was so unhappy. He was definitely thinking of things to come

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Tony

Early "Court" card and the earliest Bee theme I remember seeing. Date c.1899 but this example is unused.

Lately many of the postcards on this thread could be going on this thread:-

Picture Postcards, without regard to stamps
http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10701

Agreed; think I started one or the other, can't remember. Maybe a renaming would help:

Picture postcards with Stamps.
Picture postcards without Stamps.

With "hope" that most of the cards with stamps would be selected (and submitted) so as to show some element of postal history, cancellations, markings, etc.

You are so clever Doug

Not many realise that there are the 2 main ones, one with stamps and one without. I do because I like both.

I have changed yours Doug but will leave it to Lakatoi 4 to decide if he wants to change this one.

I've heard of many ways of sub-dividing postcard categories but never quite so simply with or without stamps.

If there was the interest I would suggest you ask Glen to create a Postcard "area" for want of a better word, but the number of posts to Picture Postcards, without regard to stamps viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10701 would seem to suggest it might not get enough support.

Do you think a postcard area with a number of different threads on different themes would be popular enough?

I would love to see a topic on postal history that related to postcards specifically, instructional marks that apply to postcards only etc etc but that would in many instances mean that the picture side would become almost irrelevant.

From a Picture point of view I'd like to see some postcard specific topics such as earliest dates recorded for different Countries or subjects etc. Interesting occupations on cards, quality real photo cards etc. I think this would look better as seperate threads, but hopefully not split purely by country for most themes as seeing the variation on a theme offered by different countries only adds to the enjoyment.

Just my tuppence worth!

Sark

I think the reason one predominates is that members don't realize there's a second choice.

Postcards are already sort of the red-haired stepchild on this STAMP website, so I hope the subdivisions don't proliferate, two would be plenty in my opinion. A card without stamps must show something historical, or interesting, or culture-oriented, like the old views of one's hometown, or the royalty, etc.

Unfortunately over the years many postcards have been stripped of their stamps (much as covers used to be).

I have a large lot of Queensland stamps that are still fixed to post card pieces. The idiots just cut then off (and the post card remnants look great).

When I first started this topic I imagined a mixture of images of both sides of a post card. If the postal rate paid is more important (perhaps underpaid or uprated) then that side would be of interest.

Alternatively the picture may be historical or just plain nice so that could also be shown here if members wish.

As Brummie mentioned above, the "Picture Postcards, without regard to stamps" topic was also created, but purely to show the picture side of the post card.

It doesn't matter which topic they're in to my mind (but two topics are plenty), we just want to see more postcards on Stampboards

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Tony

Good points, all around. I would not mind if my section was merged into yours, and that would likewise require your approval.

If there's only ONE place to view postcards, we will undoubtedly see more postcards, and more importantly, not miss anything on the other thread.

Frankly, I can never find either thread when I'm in a hurry. Today I learned about a bunch of old Syrian postcards, 1940s and 1950s, and first thing tomorrow, I'm off to investigate.

I don't think there's a need to merge them but I take your point about the advantages of having a single post card topic.

The idea of having a single topic for say postal stationary, individual single country only topics, a purely Aust. KGV or Roo topic has been debated here before.

While it would be good to have that ability the software doesn't allow it to operate like a Wiki as it's set up for a totally different function.

And as we all know, Stampboards is much, much more than a Wiki type searchable storage and retrieval database.

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Tony

Last weekend I found this ppc at a local postcard fair. Not a subject I collect but a card I couldn’t resist due to its great age. In the UK picture postcards were not permitted until 1894 but here is an example printed in Germany but posted in Hungary in Feb 1884!
FRONT

And BACK

Now here is a very scarce and unusual example of postcard related postal history. This card is postally used and very rare as such but do you know why?


The card is a relatively common Tucks “Oilette” postcard of Babcombe Beach. It has had clear glass beads glued to part of the design to give the appearance of being made of Sand.

Below is a close up of part of the design with the sea being the original printed card and the rest having the beads applied.

This is a postally used card but the scan of the reverse doesn’t make it obvious as to why.

Anyone care to suggest what’s missing? I’ll post the answer in the form of a further scan in a day or two’s time.

Well, Wikipedia says the "To" address, St. Issey is in Cornwall, and nothing remarkable about that.

The message is written both horizontally and vertically, but that's nothing new.

Postally used without stamp or postmark? Hmmm.

Maybe it's the odd flag flying on the pic side.

If the beads were applied on top of the stamp and postmark, on the picture side (European-style), I can't discern them.

Babcombe (sic), rural, peaceful Babbacombe Beach was the site of a brutal murder in November 1884, detailed here:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/terryleaman/Tiscali/John-Lee.html

So I give up.

I can't see how it could have been postally used without a stamp on at least one side and, if no stamp was affixed, then a postage due with a T handstamp. A partial cancel would be somewhere even if a stamp had accidentally lifted off or was deliberately taken off the card:?:

OK Sarc, please put us out of our misery

(BTW - nice Hungarian card before the Tucks card ).

If I could read the message, I might have more ideas, but I can't. Without the benefit of reading the message, I would "guess" the card predates World War I.

But if it had some military connotation, one could (for instance) conceal a secret message under the glass beads.

And, Babbacombe appears to be an area of high military importance in the sense of early warning of attack, or infiltration, etc., with its location out at the very tip of the peninsula (?), sort of like Land's End.

Nobody fault my geography here, as I don't have a big map. Surely there was at least an observation post somewhere nearby.

Here is a UK sent to the US Paquebot posted aboard the S.S. Aquitania.

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"Life is a tough Teacher, it gives you the test first and the lesson later"
Anonymous

UK to US Paquebot

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"Life is a tough Teacher, it gives you the test first and the lesson later"
Anonymous

The price of privacy?

Letter card in 1935 - 2½d.
Postcard in 1936 - 1d.

Indeed it is.

Germany to US Pre-Stamped Postcard 1895

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"Life is a tough Teacher, it gives you the test first and the lesson later"
Anonymous

Here’s the answer to the “postally used” apparently unused postcard. Postcards with materials applied to the picture were not permitted to be transmitted at the postcard rate of ½d and Post Office regulations stated tha they had to be enclosed in a separate envelope. Some manufacturers provided glassine envelopes with the cards. Using the semi transparent material prevented the need for writing the address twice you simply inserted the card and stuck on the 1d Stamp (or 2.½d for overseas addresses) but 99.9999% of these were thrown away on receipt of the card.

In 40 years of collecting I can remember seeing only a handful of complete matched pairs. The most common, if anything this infrequently found can be called common, are the “Silk” postcards of WWI. These were usually sent in a separate cover but even with all the mail from the front I’ve only seen perhaps half a dozen.

The Glass Bead postcard was sent from BODMIN (Cornwall) to St Issey on JU-11-08 in the envelope below, though the sender this time still wrote the address again on the cover.

If you come across a postcard that is complete with message and address but no stamp and has some material applied to the front or is slightly bigger than Post Office regulation size it might once have had a similar envelope.

Interesting bit of info.

BTW and for accuracy - a few of the cards in this topic have been described as "postcards" when they are in fact "postal cards".

A postal card is one that is officially printed by a government or government authorised printing works and has an imprint of the current correct postal rate stamp for the card.

A postcard on the other hand (whether a plain or picture post card) has to have a postage stamp affixed by the sender.

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Tony

Tony,

That definition is - surely - only the US one.

The terminology here in the UK and evidently in Australia as well, for postcards with a stamp imprinted by the post office, is a postcard, witness the caption on this one from your earlier post:

It's postal stationery, which can be pre-stamped envelopes, postcards, letter cards, telegram forms, airletters, etc.

We can't allow our hobby to be ruled by pedantic American terminology which, in some cases, is simply confusing.

Carte Postale



Brevkort - literally, Letter Card.


Postkarte

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Here's an early postcard from Adelaide that was obviously sent in an envelope...no envelope available but at least, the sender dated the card!

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Now, this one hasn't been used but I would be vey interested in knowing if anyone could roughly date it for me. It's very early.. I'm pretty sure that's Flinders Street Station in the left foreground and over the river, was that Allen's? the lolly factory? Would love to have a current photo to compare the changes!!! They must be massive!



Most appreciated if you can help. Anne

Another question, if I may...what do you call the "postcards" that are the fold out types? I always just thought they were postcard "packs" but reading this thread, now I'm thinking they must be a totally different genre'.
Thanks again,
Anne

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Anne Hi
Could you post a scan of the reverse of the card as this often has important clues as to production date of the card. When the photograph was actually taken could be a number of years earlier of course!
Sark

In the "Princes Bridge" [built in 1888] card, it appears there are no automobiles anywhere in the photo; I could be wrong, I'd need an enlargement to be sure. But that probably dates the card pre-1908 or so. On the other hand, pre-War photo cards of this clarity and detail are most unusual.

Hi, here's a copy of the back. The only clue I can think of is the phone number! Northcote 60! I did clean it up a bit as it still had some brown paper stuck to it from a previous album. Couldn't read the phone number before.



If I enlarge the front, what DPI would you suggest I use and would you want an enlargement of the bridge? That is the most obvious area to see if there is a car on it!

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

There are no cars on the bridge nor on the esplanade on the far bank. There is a horse-drawn cart just above the pillar on the far bank, head pointing left.

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Ian Billings - Norvic Philatelics GB stamps info: http://www.norphil.co.uk - also /catalog for our ecommerce site, blog.norphil.co.uk, shop.norphil.co.uk and Ian_norvic on twitter

Hi, using a magnifier, I also found the horse and cart! Wish it had been used!

Is the front label "photo series PC 787" no help in dating it? I have no access to a Melbourne phone book so can't even look up Jamieson Bros...not that they would be still around! And, I have not been able to find another postcard with a similar picture of modern Melbourne to compare the view! That would be interesting.

Thanks so far, Anne

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Here's another postcard, this time from Germany. Posted to Australia in 1955 with a Canadian 5 cent stamp. I'm assuming that CAPO on the postmark means Canadian Army Post Office? On the front, it is also postmarked with a 'Field Post' hand stamp for 1955. It had been stored in one of those aweful stick photo albums I took it out as soon as I got it! Any ideas on how to get those yellow marks off?

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Nope, that's the front.


You need to work on a maximum image dimension of 800 pixels to get it on here.

600 dpi is usually good for detail, as long as length or width don't go over the 800 pixel limit.

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A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).

Ok, now that you have thoroughly confused me Muruk would you like me to try an 800 pixel enlargement of the bridge?

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Well, 800 did not work...way too pixelated...how about this?



Still not great, but I am certainly no expert at this. At least you can "sort of" see the horse and driver! Have never really played around with this part of photo imaging! It's good fun

Anne

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

There is a photo-tool "hidden" in Windows that not everyone knows about. Right-click on an image name when it's in "My Pictures," and select "Open With," then select "Microsoft Office Picture Manager." It is fairly versatile, and especially easy to reduce the file size of images.

That's the one I use.

It's not restricted to images in "My Pictures" ... they can be in any folder.

hutch ... I think you are mixing up image size with scanning resolution.

800 dpi is an un-natural resolution for scanning and will result in moire effects. You need to scan at either 600 or 1200 dpi ... numbers in between don't work well.

Anything you enlarge digitally will become pixellated.

Scanning at a high resolution (1200 or 2400 dpi) then reducing the size digitally usually works OK.

_________________
A man might as well marry ... if he finds a good wife he will be happy ... if not, he will become a philosopher.
Collecting Greater New Guinea & Macropods (Kangaroos & Wallabies).