Archive for the ‘Post Card’ Category

The only way to keep up with the latest about Post Card is to constantly stay on the lookout for new information. If you read everything you find about Post Card, it won’t take long for you to become an influential authority.

While the vast majority of all postcards made are not very valuable some are considered to be rare and desirable by collectors and these can be worth quite a bit of money.

For rare examples prices can go into the low thousands of dollars and it is certainly not all that uncommon to find a $50 postcard hiding in a pile of ordinary cards. Combing through 175 cards it would not be surprising to find one or two that are worth $5 to $10 or even more.

The classic postcard era was from 1898 to 1918 and the cards that fall in this time frame are the most collectible to collectors as a rule. It is usually the topic or the image or the artist who created the image that establishes its value. Serious postcard collectors are interested in a wide variety of subjects.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Post Card. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

Holiday cards are very popular. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter and Valentine’s Day postcards are rather common, but cards sent for Halloween, Labor Day, and Ground Hog Day aren’t. Halloween cards are particularly popular right now and some of the most desired ones were created by artist Ellen Clapsaddle. Three of her mechanical Halloween cards with moving parts sold for a little less than $1,500. Artist-signed cards are another focus of strong collector interest. Pieces signed by Rose O’Neil (particularly her Kewpie cards), Philip Boileau, Arpad Basch (in the Art Nouveau style), Grace Drayton, Raphael Kirchner, Alphonse Mucha (look for his card advertising “Waverly Cycles”), Louis Wain (cats and paper dolls) and Florence Upton, to name just a few, are extremely popular.

We said earlier that Christmas cards were common but there are certain types of Christmas cards that are valuable. There are vast quantities featuring a white Santa Claus in a red suit but find a Santa in a different color of suit or come across a black Santa and you have something of a treasure. Find one in purple robes and the value might shoot up to around $200. One in blue robes trimmed in brown fur and the value can top $400. Postcard collectors look for what they call hold-to-light cards which have elements such as windows and fireplaces that seem to light up when the back of the card is held to a light. A New Year’s hold-to-light card might be worth between $75 and $100 while a regular New Year’s card might be worth very little.

Other cards to look for include the real photo cards of small towns or actual events. These can be rather expensive because there may have been only a few specimens of each view printed. Real photo cards that collectors find interesting can go up to the $5,000 dollars and such images as golfers playing a famous course can bring $350 or more.
To be valuable, postcards must be in good condition with no creases or folds. They should not have corners that are dog eared. Fronts that are not written on is the best (backs are ok) and no discoloration. Keep hunting for your treasured postcard and who’s to say yours won’t be worth a pretty penny.

You can’t predict when knowing something extra about Post Card will come in handy. If you learned anything new about Post Card in this article, you should file the article where you can find it again.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary.

Besides communicating quick notes or vacation greetings, postcards also served as greeting cards for all occasions. These can be priceless for the genealogist. For example, Emily Rule, Tennessee, has been looking for clues in two scrapbooks full of early 19th century postcards that belonged to her great grandmother and great grandfather. To her amazement she has found out much she didn’t know about her family and her roots.

Emily is now using postcards to locate descendants of her great grandmothers who married and settled in Virginia before 1893. “From the postcards relatives sent her great grandparents we know where her family was before marriage and other little details about their life at that time,” she says.

Another favorite motif for postcards was transportation, which includes ship advertising, railroad stations and trains. You might be able to find a card of the ship that brought your ancestors to America. American Line, Anchor Line, Cunard, Hamburg-Amerika, Holland-America, Norddeutscher Lloyd, Red Star, White Star and many other smaller lines issued advertising cards that featured views of their ships accompanied by some size and tonnage facts. It is fun to trace the footsteps of your ancestors from different shores. Railroad depot postcards were very popular and still are today. It would be fantastic to find a real photo card of your ancestors standing in front of an old depot. All the different trains throughout our history and how they were used to transport in early America are quite collectible as well.

How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything.

Town and city views, another popular postcard subject, show courthouses, schools, streets and post offices. They’re available for both US and European localities, and can be a way of connecting with your ancestors even if they didn’t send the postcards themselves. People have researched and found churches where ancestors have married, schools they attended and places they visited. These items are priceless!

It is amazing to see how many photo cards were developed from your own hometown even showing individual streets. You can buy them fairly cheaply too. Most are from shortly after the turn of the century, following the 1900 introduction of “Real Photo Cards”.

Similarly, roadside cards depicted diners and restaurants, gas stations, hotels and motels and shops. Perhaps your ancestors frequented a particular eatery or stayed at a certain hotel during their travels. The ideas of tracing your family is endless and can be a great way to share with your family your history. What a legacy to pass down to your children and grandchildren. These type items are interesting even to people outside the family. You will be quite surprised at the amount of information you can find and postcards on line concerning your family history. Small towns your ancestors have come from or cities far away are just a click away. Get started with a new pastime of postcard collecting from the past and engage in the history of your ancestors.

The day will come when you can use something you read about here to have a beneficial impact. Then you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more about Post Card.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The following article includes pertinent information that may cause you to reconsider what you thought you understood. The most important thing is to study with an open mind and be willing to revise your understanding if necessary.

PIONEER ERA (1889-1898)

This era began when vendors and exhibitors at the French Exposition in France (1889) started selling picture postcards. They gained much popularity and helped keep postcards in circulation. They are scarce today and have combinations of the following distinctions:

Undivided backs (no line dividing address and message) Does not say “Authorized by Act of Congress” in byline. If American, they have a Grant or Jefferson head stamp, most are multiple view cards postage rate, if listed, will be 2 cents. It is usually called Mail Card or Souvenir Card mostly used in larger Eastern cities/

PRIVATE MAILING CARD ERA (1898-1901)

As of May 19, 1898, government gave private printers permission to both sell and print postcards inscribed with the words “Private Mailing Card.” (Abbreviated today as PMCs). Many Pioneer Era cards were reprinted as PMCs. Postcards of this era have undivided backs as well. You were still not able to write on the back of the Post Card forcing people to write on the front. During this period around 1900, Real Photo postcards (RPs, postcards on film stock: i.e. pictures) began to come into use. These early real photo images were mainly advertisements.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Post Card. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

In 1898 postage required for mailing a postcard was reduced from 2 cents to 1 cent.

UNDIVIDED BACK ERA (1901-1907)

As of December 24, 1901, printers were allowed to use “Post Card” on the backs of their cards. All of these cards had undivided backs (Writing was still not permitted on the address side). For Undivided Back Era postcards, writing on the front is acceptable, not usually decreasing the condition grade of these cards but there are exceptions to every rule. The publishing of printed postcards during this time doubled almost every six months! In addition, European publishers opened offices in the U.S. and imported millions of high-quality postcards. By 1907, European publishers accounted for over 75% of all postcards sold in the U.S. The popularity of lithographed cards caught Eastman-Kodak’s attention as well. His company issued an affordable “Folding Pocket Kodak” camera around 1906. This enabled the mass public to take black & white photographs and have them printed directly onto paper with postcard backs. Various other models of

Kodak “postcard” cameras followed resulting in an explosion in the real photo postcard era. These cameras shared two unique features: their negatives were postcard size (the major reason why so many of these images are so clear) and they had a small thin door at the back that, when lifted, enabled the photographer to write an identifying caption or comment on the negative itself with an attached metal scribe. Also interesting to note is at the end of this period in time, the picture postcard hobby became the greatest collectible hobby that the world has ever known and still today is one of the most desired collectibles. The official figures from the U.S. Post Office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, cite 677,777,798 postcards were mailed. That was at a time when the total population of the U.S. was 88,700,000. That is an amazing piece of American trivia!

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

PHOTOCHROME ERA (1939 to present)

Photochromes (also known as Modern Chromes) first came into being in 1939. Their colors were particularly appealing to collectors. The famous movie, The Wizard of Oz, affirmed America’s love for color images. These “Chrome” postcards started to dominate the scene soon after they were launched by the Union Oil Company in their western service stations in 1939. They were easily produced, of high photo quality and most importantly, they were in color. Their spread was momentarily slowed down during WWII due to supply shortages, but they replaced both linen and black & white postcards by 1945 in the roadside postcard racks. Linen firms converted to photochrome postcards or went out of business. Black and white postcard firms merged with larger companies or disappeared completely.

REAL PHOTO POSTCARDS (1900 to present)

Real Photo Postcards were used as early as 1900. They can be particularly difficult to date unless they have a postmark or a date from the photographer. They must be carefully examined to ensure they are not reproductions which can be a problem.
There is much confusion on what “Real Photo” postcards are and how to identify them. Real Photo postcards are reproduced photographs developed onto photographic paper. With the size and weight of postcards with a postcard back. There are many postcards that reproduce photos by various printing methods that aren’t “real photos.” Instead are the same methods used to reproduce photos in magazines and newspapers. The best way to tell the difference is to look at the postcard with a magnifying glass. If the photo is printed you will see that it is made up of a lot of little dots, the same as a photo printed in a newspaper. A “real photo” postcard is solid, no dots.

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

Helpful Hint: Most real photo postcards have identifying marks on the back usually in the stampbox corner, that identifies the manufacturer of the photographic paper. You can approximate the age of the Real Photo by knowing when the paper manufacturer was in business

ART DECO ERA (1910 to early ’30s)

Art Decos are known mainly for their vibrant colors. Art Deco is usually concerned with things of the past including pictures done by the ancient Greeks. Also copies with a twist of Middle Eastern subjects, variations on Egyptian artifacts, a natural extension of Art Nouveau and a whole variety of other influences not so directly related. They often depict pretty ladies in fancy clothes vogue style. Also of note are the sharp angles and straight lines. They have gained in popularity over the years and now have a very strong following.
The Art Deco period began around 1900 and ended around 1930. If in fact it ever did have an ending. At least however, this is the period during which the greatest volume of work was produced. What finally ended the movement? Most likely it suffered an untimely demise due to the financial crash of 1929 plus a worldwide depression. Then the second World War interrupted any recovery

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

In today’s world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.

In 1939 the Union Oil Co. of California began publishing postcard views of Southwestern scenes which were given away as premiums in the company’s service stations. The Union Oil cards introduced new printing technology. Cards were printed in four-color half-tone process with a varnish overcoat called photochrome probably because of their link to Kodak’s newly introduced Kodachrome color reversal slide film. Kodachrome slides were the cornerstone for most of these new photochrome cards. This name soon was shortened by collectors to chrome. This new technology yielded a high-quality, detailed image with a shiny surface that was close to photographic quality and in realistic color. World War II slowed their spread but in the early 1950′s chrome cards took over the postcard market replacing both linens and black-and-white real-photo views.

Postcards to this day are still almost entirely chromes. The computer has changed the look of view cards in the last few years as designers working with digital image-editing software have turned blue skies into blazing sunsets with expanse of color not seen since the linen cards of the 1930s. In addition they added larger and larger type effects reflecting the public’s preoccupation with logos and brand names.

The most noticeable change in postcards since the beginning of the chrome era has been their size:

The best time to learn about Post Card is before you’re in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Post Card experience while it’s still free.

- “Standard.” For almost a century the standard size for a postcard was 5 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. The first postal cards issued by the Post Office were roughly the same size as a standard mailing envelope in the middle of the 19th Century. Private manufacturers of postcards quickly began to experiment with the size of cards — small ones and fold-outs and double-wide panoramas for example. Throughout the golden age of postcards though from the pioneer era through white borders and real-photos and linens and chromes, the vast majority of postcards were this standard 5 1/2-by-3 1/2 size.

- “Continental.” In the last two or three decades it seems everything in America has been supersized, from french fries to toilet paper. Postcards are no exception. The “standard” size for postcards has increased from 5 1/2-by-3 12 to 4-by-6. Collectors call these larger cards “continentals,” because presumably the larger size first became common on the Continent.

- “Supercontinental.” The latest development in the never-ending battle to create something that will catch the public’s eye and pry open its wallet are postcards that are even larger than “continental” — 7 by 4.5 inches and up. These are too big to mail at the postcard rate (currently 23 cents): the Postal Service requires letter-rate postage, 37 cents. Probably few of them are actually mailed, anyway. These megacards seem to be marketed as souvenirs, mini-posters to be taken home and put on a mirror or a refrigerator for your own enjoyment or memories.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

With postcard collecting there is usually not a lot of socializing going on since this is normally a hobby you do alone. Although you can come into contact with other collectors at fairs it is often difficult to get much further than just saying hello and it takes a while for faces to become familiar. After all everyone is looking for that special card for their collection and chatting can waste valuable hunting time!

This can mean that collecting postcards is a rather solitary hobby and although it gets you out of the house it doesn’t make you many friends. However this need not be the case. Many areas have their own postcard club and this offers you an ideal opportunity to not only learn more about the hobby but also to make some new friends.

I know the idea of going somewhere for the first time can be rather daunting, especially if you think everyone knows everyone else, and this is why choosing a meeting close to a holiday is a good idea. Generally the holiday meetings of any club will have some kind of festive theme even if it’s only store bought cookies in the interval. If there is not a club in your area consider starting one. You could advertise it in your church bulletin or local paper and you just might be surprised to find out how many share your love for postcards.

It’s really a good idea to probe a little deeper into the subject of Post Card. What you learn may give you the confidence you need to venture into new areas.

Most club meetings will have one or two dealers whose stock you can look through at a far more leisurely pace than at a fair, where there are so many stalls to get round in a very limited time. Teas and coffees are also on offer and this allows plenty of time for a chat, this could mean the chance of meeting someone who shares your collecting interest and maybe the possibility of sharing information or even swapping cards.

The main event of the evening is generally a talk on a postcard related theme that is illustrated with cards from the speakers own card collection. Some clubs have other events such as auctions, short talks given by members, quiz nights and outings. They usually produce a newsletter that will be posted to you in advance of the next meeting letting you know about the forthcoming talk and which dealers have agreed to come. It is useful to remember that most collectors are as isolated in their collecting as you are and would also benefit from making new contacts. Most clubs welcome new members so take a deep breath and go and have some fun!

Remember you all have something in common postcard collecting!

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Advanced collectors of topographical views tend to eventually find themselves in the pursuit of real photo postcards over printed cards. This is mostly due to the image quality and detailed contained in the photo. If you were collecting views from your hometown you might collect any and every card you could find no matter what. They all take on personal meaning to you. A real photo postcards is just that.. an actual photograph and not a printed lithograph. Although generally more expensive they are more detailed then printed views and can often be an extra special find since they could show buildings, homes, people and sometimes even towns that no longer exist. That is quite an exciting find! Many Historians and Preservationists have focused on acquiring photo postcards as they are wonderful historical documents. In 1903 Kodak introduced the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak. This was Kodak’s first “postcard” camera.

This allowed the amateur photographer to produce their own photo postcards. You could take a photo of anything you wanted and send your photograph with a bit of correspondence on the back anywhere throughout the world. These views are often one of a kind. There were also many commercially produced cards by local or itinerant photographers that would take photographs of their regional areas and sell the cards wholesale to the local druggist or a store owner who then resold the cards to their clientele that visited their establishment. Usually these views were of Main Street or important buildings, such as the courthouse, bank, school, churches and even some of the prominent homes in an area. If a business owner did commission a photographer for some work he might end up sending the image to Germany where printed litho cards would then be produced. This was the case up until the first World War when the cards were then printed in the US Unused photo postcards can often be dated by the stamp box on the photo paper.

Hopefully the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

Some of the most interesting real photo cards are sometimes called the “boring” postcards. A boring postcard is one you’d respond to by saying, “Now why would anyone want a postcard of that?”

Remember staying in the Howard Johnson’s as a child and standing at the front desk looking at all the postcards? The boring postcards were pictures of the rooms with the orange bed spread and “pleather” white headboards. The view of the pool in Sparta Tn. Holiday Inn, road signs, concrete dams, highways under construction, elementary schools, picture of eggs and bacon from an obscure diner on some off the road place.

There is even a book out called “Boring Postcards. There is a German title, “Langweilige Postkarten” that is even more evocative. It’s a collection of meticulously grouped, carefully reproduced… boring postcards. Yet the parade of gas stations, diners, shopping malls, motorways, airports, and other extremely un-photogenic subjects often photographed without even one bit of ambition, when presented as a collection, is incredibly funny.

That’s how things stand right now. Keep in mind that any subject can change over time, so be sure you keep up with the latest news.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Always remember first, because old post card collecting is such an expansive subject, there are few experts. That puts you in the middle of the runners before you’ve even started the race. Secondly, remember there are millions of cards out there on virtually every subject. Many have been priced in a hurry and without knowledge. They show up at all the same flea markets, garage sales, shops and auctions you go to. You can have fun collecting old post cards perhaps even make money in the hobby. Begin by understanding because there’s such a wide variety of postcards that they are collected and valued by category. Here’s a few postcard categories much sought after by collectors. It’s easy to understand why. Price averages are for early cards in good condition.

1. Artist Signed – Just as you’d be proud to hang a signed painting by Howard Chandler Christy, Thomas Kinkade, Kate Greenaway or Frederick Remington, so we should with singed postcards. Less famous of course, but equally prized postcard artists signed by Rose O’Neil, Charles Twelvetrees and many others can be recognized by their talent. Appraise postcards as you appraise art.

2. Mechanical and Hold up to the Light- People love gadgets. Occasionally, an old postcard is found with moving parts or a special message revealed when held up to light or even heat. Other varieties of Novelty cards are also collected.

3. Advertising – These cards draw the collectors: Coca-Cola, S & H Green Stamps, International Harvester, Bell Telephone, Expo’s and Fairs, etc.. Interesting small business ads like, “Dr. Keating’s Wooden Legs,” are also coveted.

4. Pioneer – Rare early Souvenir, Mail or Correspondence Cards with US Postal markings dating from 1861 to May 19, 1898.

Truthfully, the only difference between you and Post Card experts is time. If you’ll invest a little more time in reading, you’ll be that much nearer to expert status when it comes to Post Card.

5. View Cards – A majority of cards published in the United States are view or picture cards. Most valued are pre W.W.I cards with real brown-shaded sepia photos.
Later to come would be the color photo prints. Interesting shots are much more valuable than boring ones but then again that is in the eye of the beholder. What kind of views are interesting? Famous people, early aviation, trains & depots, Indians, disaster scenes, occupational and bird’s-eye-views, etc..

6. Holiday Post Cards – Halloween, Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Saint Patrick’s Day cards were not produced in great numbers like Christmas Cards. Christmas Cards are still very valuable especially if the picture is of an old fashioned Saint Nick in a coat of green, blue, or white compared with what is common today.

7. Political Cards – Like advertising postcards, political cards bring a new category of collector into the market. One card featuring Uncle Sam scolding a baseball uniformed Teddy Roosevelt for having already batting twice would definitely attract collectors.

8. By Manufacturer – Rapheal Tuck and Sons are probably most famous. Early examples have a tiny easel in the corner on the picture side. Later cards will have Tuck’s name or that of his brands: Oilette, Charmette, Raphotype, Rapholette, and Aquarette.

Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about Post Card into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about Post Card, and that’s time well spent.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO

Tinselling

Tinselling of postcards was a common practice and one frequently used by dealers to enhance the sales of slow-moving stock. The lines on the view selected for highlighting were drawn on with a steel pen dispensing a special tinselling glue. Tinsel, mica, diamond dust, small transparent beads or finely ground glitter was taken from a special jewelling outfit, shaken on the postcard and the residue blown away. In 1907 the Canadian Post Office Department briefly prohibited their transmission in the mail because of the damage they were causing to electric stamping machines in use at city post offices.

Vignette

Vignette is the name given to the style of finish in which the background of the image or a portion of it appears to fade away gradually into the paper.

Bookmark

The Rotary Photographic Co. of London, England established in 1901, was a huge publisher of real photo postcards. One of their unique novelty postcards was a 1 3/4″ x 5 1/2″ photo series of bookmark cards. Most seem to have been posted in the 1903-04 period. Pugh Manufacturing Co. and Rumsey & Co., both of Toronto, published in 1910-11 a similar novelty postcard, 1 1/4″ x 5 1/2″, with the name Book Post Card. The cards were printed in England, probably by Rotary Photographic. Rumsey & Co. published a number of Hamilton subjects. To date no Hamilton subjects by Pugh Manufacturing have been seen.

Deckle Edge

The deckle edge postcard was die-cut to give a wavy or uneven edge. Most of the examples seen are chrome postcards of relatively recent date.

If you don’t have accurate details regarding Post Card, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don’t let that happen: keep reading.

Embossed Printing

In embossed printing, the letters or illustrations in part or in whole are in prominence. Heavily embossed cards because of the indentation on the back caused problems. The problems this caused when addressing the card or writing the message required a separate backing.

Felt Pennant Applique

The pennant postcard was a stock card carried by a publisher which could be imprinted with a town or city name on request. In this case felt fabric has been cut in a pennant shape and printed with the city name then glued to the postcard. A number of felt pennant applique postcards were published by K.&T., an American firm. Later to come there was an even more elaborate design combining the felt pennant with a photo insert then embossing and airbrushing.

Foil Pennant Applique

One of the more elaborate mail novelties seen was produced by Valentine and Sons’ Publishing Co. about 1917. It has an applique pennant of ribbed blue foil printed with the city name over which a circular real photo view has been attached.

Gelatine Film

Some postcards were treated with a film of gelatin which is a varnish-like coating that produced a glossy surface. Unfortunately the coating was brittle and the surface had a tendency to crack. The cards also tended to curl and the gelatine coating peeled back at the corners.

As your knowledge about Post Card continues to grow, you will begin to see how Post Card fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO

The tradition to send Easter postcards to relatives and friends developed in the end of the 19th century. During the year 1898 there were only a few Easter cards sent but the amount of sent Easter cards raised in the following years worldwide. Soon it was courteous and polite to send Easter postcards. In the beginning, monochrome as well as colored cards were printed. Most of the time in the center of the cards was an oversized colored egg. In the first years of the Easter postcards often a part of the front side was empty. This was the space for the greetings of the sender because the post-order only allowed the address and the stamp on the back side. Because of that, the artist creativity was hindered and precious illustrations were deformed. In 1905 the post in Austria and Germany separated the back side of the cards in two halves. The right half served as before for the address and the stamp and the other one was the new space for the message. 1906 this was officially allowed by the world-post-congress in Rome.

In the years around 1910 on the cards were mainly monochrome pictures which were sometimes colored with children in the context with lambs, chickens, ducks and eggs. Young girls were a symbol for luck and hope. The Easter bunny which was a personified symbol of fruitfulness was often portrayed with eggs. German publishers were leading in the production of Easter postcards before the first world war.

The information about Post Card presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about Post Card or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.

During the time of the first world war the children were replaced through soldiers and a military appearance of the Easter bunny was quite common. After the first world war, photos were not the foundation for Easter postcards anymore but drawn colorful Easter sketches. At this time a very popular motive was Jesus in the open countryside surrounded by sheep. Also cards with flowers were sent very often too such as the Easter lily. In the time of prosperity during 1898 and 1918 the basis of the cards was chromolithography. There reveal very impressive cards with silver, gold and relief-stamping.

A huge reduction of sent Easter postcards occurred through the second world war. After the war, the amount of sent cards raised slowly but in the last ten years it fell rapidly because of the competition with telephony and e-mail. Easter postcards are still sent today but not with the fervor of the greeting card. The collection of the Easter postcard is quite collectible and not so easy to find.

Knowing enough about Post Card to make solid, informed choices cuts down on the fear factor. If you apply what you’ve just learned about Post Card, you should have nothing to worry about.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO