TX, USA - Life Cycle of Stars Postcard with Space Themed Stamps

 

MO, USA - Total Solar Eclipse Postcard with Heat-Activated Postage Stamp

 

TX, USA - The Great North American Total Solar Eclipse Postcard with stamp

 

UT, USA - NASA Curiosity Rover Heat Shield Postcard

 Read more!

> "PIA16021: Curiosity's Heat Shield in Detail." In NASA JPL CIT Photojournal. (2012, Aug 08). https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16021.

OH, USA - Total Solar Eclipse Akron Ohio Postcard

 

NY, USA - "Greetings From" Vintage Reprint Postcard

 

USA - Budapest Postcard

 

MI, USA - Natural Representation of a Sheep Postcard (Animal Box: 100 Postcards Set)

USA - Pi Day Pie Postcard

Boston, MA, USA - Posman Books NYC Postcard (World's Greatest Bookstores Set)

 

CAN, KOR, BLR, USA - Low Value Definitives Chain Postcard

 

From top to bottom: Belarus, USA, South Korea, Canada

 

Chain card with South Korea, Belarus, and the USA for low-value definitive stamps. Traveled 54 days from January 18th until March 12th, 2024. Stamps from Belarus (top row) were attached in the USA, due to mail restrictions. This was my first chain card :)

MI, USA - Sylvia Earle Women in Science Postcard

 

VA, USA - Provincetown Pride Flag Postcard

NY, USA - "Greetings From" Vintage Postcard

 

MISC - A Blast from the Past with Old Postcards

Inspired in part by learning a bit more about the postage rate history in Canada and in part by my recent interest in stamp cancels, I decided to dive back into my personal postcard collection and take a look at some of the older postcards, focusing on the stamps used and their associated cancels. Here's some of what I found...

United States

1949

USA to CAN - $0.02 - Oct 15, 1949
including a stamp (presumably) upon arrival in Canada, on Oct 20, 1949

1979

USA to CAN - $0.10 - Jan 31, 1979
with a stamp "ALWAYS USE / ZIP CODE"
(ironically this postcard was missing the postal code)

1996

USA to CAN - $0.32 - Dec 1?, 1996
with a stamp "MISSISSIPPI QUEEN / STEAMBOAT MA(??)"

2005

USA to CAN - $0.23 - Nov 07, 2005
including a "POSTAGE DUE" stamp, without a value...
($0.23 was the domestic postcard rate in 2005 but the international rate is unclear for me for this time. In 2005, letter rates were $0.37 and in 2007, "Forever" stamps were introduced, giving a Canadian letter rate of $0.69)

Canada

1958

Canada to Alberta - $0.04 - Sep 07, 1958

BC to Canada- $0.04 - Aug 1?, 1958

1962

BC to AB - $0.04 - Aug 23, 1962
with a stamp "DAWSON CITY / GOLD RUSH / FESTIVAL / JULY 1 - AUG. 25"

1971

ON to AB - $0.06 - May 24, 1971
with a stamp "JUNE 1 - CENSUS (??) / COUNT YOURSELF / 1 JUIN RECENSEMENT / SOYEZ DU NOMBRE"

New Zealand

Auckland, New Zealand to Canada - $1.00 - Aug 27, 1990
with a stamp "FASTPOST (??) / FOR SPEEDY / DELIVERY-"

Other

This one wasn't written nor stamped but it does have an interesting "Posted Aboard Ship Date" stamp (without a date)

Read More!

Great for more images of this sort - 

> Postal History Corner: Canadian Postal and Philatelic History. https://postalhistorycorner.blogspot.com/

And more history -

> Rates for Stamped Cards and Postcards. (Undated) In Postal History. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/postcard-rates-since-1873.htm

> History of United States postage rates. (2024, January 18). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_postage_rates

> Postage stamps and postal history of New Zealand. (2023, September 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_New_Zealand

> Redressing the Balance – A brief history of Letter Balances and the Penny Post. In MOTAT. https://www.motat.nz/collections-and-stories/stories/redressing-the-balance-a-brief-history-of-letter-balances-and-the-penny-post/