Antique Post Card Collecting for Today

Post cards have always been a popular item to collect. Some collectors like to collect everything from one category, while others specialize in one or two areas.

There are several categories such as aviation,artist replicas,holidays,historical,novelties,parks,tourist attractions and transportation to name a few.

Then there are the different types of cards such as real photos or linens.

The first photo shown is a replica of the first Christmas postcard done by Hallmark cards about 1980. Christmas cards were not regularly in America until the late 1870's.

Card number two is also a Christmas post card. It was postally used in 1919 and still has the one cent stamp attached. As you can see it is damaged so it has no value to a postcard collector. However, it would be interesting to a stamp collector, damaged or not, as long as the stamp is good.

Card number three is a typical advertising card from a park. It was not postally used so in order to identify when it was printed, the collector would have to use the name of the publisher or printer along with the identification serial number printed on the back. The identification number is sc10537. Another clue is the printers name and address. The address contains a five digit zip code, so that tells us that it was printed after the postal service began using the zip code system, which is probably the 1960's-80's.

Card number four is a theater advertising card. There is no date, it was not postally used and there's no printer information on the reverse. However, it does have a dividing line in the center of the back. The writing on the back says "Stop laughing long enough to tell your friends about My Fat Friend." So to identify this one you would have to find out when this play was on Broadway. Clues can also be taken from the actors in the picture. Look at the faces, they look pretty young as compared to recent photos. This card would also be useful to someone who collects autographs. These autographs are printed but they make a good guideline to use in identifying signatures.

The next postcard is an advertising card for a church sunday school. It was postally used, the one cent stamp and the 1917 post mark are on the reverse. The recipients name is handwritten, and the publisher's name is in the center of the back. There is no identification number visible , but it may be under the stamp.

The next card is also an advertisement. It's for a tourist attraction, the oldest house in the United States. It is a natural color card with a linen look. The identification number is 30186. It was not postally used, so a postcard collector would mark this one as unused or "unu". You can see that someone used scotch tape on the corners making it nearly valueless to a collector.

The next two cards shown are "real photo" cards. One is a sepia photo labeled Amsterdam (C) Prinsengracht-Spiegelgracht. It was postally used but the stamp has been removed, so there's no post mark to get a date from. However, the wording on the back says"verboden No. 121, which could be used to identify this card.

The other card is a street scene photo of Charlottesville ,VA. It is post marked 1910 and the stamp has been removed.

The last card shown is an authentic watercolor card, used by a watch company in Chicago in 1914. The stamp has been removed. It's a pre printed card acknowledging a persons order and telling them their product is on back order and will be shipped on Feb, 25, 1914. The post mark is very light but with a magnifying glass you can see that it's 1914. With this card, someone has underlined every sentence in the message with an ink pen, which greatly reduces the price one may be able to get for this card. It is marked geniune watercolor and gives the name of the process used.

There are many varieties of collectible post cards, which include,celebrities, comics, world fairs, and much more. Almost every hotel and motel that exists has distributed advertising post cards for the use of their guests.

A really neat collection would be to collect the hotel and motel post cards, along with a clip of matches from the same establishment.

Novelty post cards which had cloth or metal attachments were once very popluar. Churches, schools and banks also had post cards printed.

Many business's today still use post cards. Almost anything you can think of is on a post card, somewhere in the world.

In identifying post cards , many times you will have to use items in the photo to try to determine the date. Vehicles are always a good way to date a post card, as is the building or attraction itself.

With a little determination and hard work you can become very proficient at dating post cards.