Postcrossing Blog

Remember some years ago, when a class of students in Tuvalu sent postcards to raise awareness for the plight of their tiny country?

Well, they’re at it again! This year’s project is called “We are One”. Emily (aka emilytao), the volunteer who is helping the children on this project, explains the concept:

"Being one of the smallest and most remote nations in the world, it’s easy to miss out Tuvalu on the map. Through postcard exchanging, we wish to make this island country more known to the world; hence the idea of “We Are One Project” was born, which aims to connect Funafuti’s (the capital island) Primary School children with postcrossers from all over the world. Students will benefit from writing postcards in English, further motivating them to become better writers… or simply to have more enthusiasm in learning English!

Once we receive postcards, students will be assigned to do studies and research on different country’s unique culture or history. They will be amazed at the fact how big the world is; bigger than they had thought, beyond the skyline of coconut trees and the sea.

Through this project, we hope to help our children be more connected with the rest of the world, and understand that we are all part of it, for better or worse, WE ARE ONE WORLD. "

How wonderful is that? :) They’re planning to send around 400 postcards, and the first ones are already on their way! If you’re lucky, you might receive or send one to them!

Oh! And if you didn’t know where Tuvalu is, or want to learn more about this Polynesian island nation, don’t forget to check out their page on Wikipedia.

PS – We know that Tuvalu is a “rare” country, but Emily and the children won’t be able to engage in direct swaps for the duration of the project. So please respect their choice, and don’t contact them requesting for swaps.

Yes, you read that right! With the Queen’s royal approval, the tiny island of Guernsey will be the fourth country (or in this case, special territory) to launch its own Postcrossing stamp!

Why Guernsey, you might ask? Well, it’s all thanks to Michael (aka GIBSONMS)! One day, Michael decided to get in touch with a few postal services and make the case for a Postcrossing stamp as a way to spread the word about the project. He was really enthusiastic and persistent, and what do you know… it worked! :)

So ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to announce that on May 28th, a new Postcrossing stamp will be born! Here’s what it will look like:

Fun, right? It was designed by Guernsey Post’s marketing team, and it depicts an outline of the island of Guernsey with a smiley face, giving the thumbs up to Postcrossing! It will be available online on the Guernsey Stamps page from May 28th onwards, and also on the local post offices.

No matter how many Postcrossing stamps are born, it’s still a great honor for us to see them come to life. How many websites do you know that can boast this? :) So we’d like to give our heartfelt thank you to Dawn Gallienne at Guernsey Post for believing in the project – and especially to Michael, for his dedication!

By the way, we’re preparing a Postcrossing meeting in St. Peter Port, on the launch day, so that all postcrossers can come together and send postcards with the new stamp. It’ll take place on the main Post Office (Envoy House, La Vrangue) at 2pm – do get in touch on the forum, if you’re planning to attend. Everyone is welcome and we look forward to seeing you there! :)

Today we’d like to present you a special kind of postcards… linen postcards! Have you ever heard of them, or received one?

By the name alone, one might imagine that linen postcards were made from… well… linen! However, while the surface pattern of the card resembled linen fabric, the cards were actually made from a very inexpensive paper stock with a high rag content and finished with a pattern that resembles the crosshatched surface of linen. The reverse side of these kinds of cards was smooth like other postcards.

Linen postcards were extremely popular from the early 1930’s to 1945, when they were ultimately replaced with photochrome postcards, boasting a glossy finish and realistic looking photos. Some manufacturers, mostly located in the south of the United States, still produced linen cards up until the 50’s and 60’s. During their heyday, the biggest publishing company of top-notch linen postcards was Teich. Founded in 1898, they didn’t receive any real recognition until they began to come out with imaginative scenes on their linen postcards. They were the ones responsible for the creation of the Large Letter postcards, remember?

It was owner Curt Teich who realized that by creating more of a surface area on the cards, you enabled the heatset inks to dry faster, allowing the dyes to remain stronger on the surface. This concept gave linen postcards their unique vivid color, which was a huge advance from the previously popular “white border” postcards that could only muster up a bland and blurry finish.

The subject matter of linens was extremely varied, ranging from town and scenic views, to interiors and comics. Roadside establishments such as diners, motels, bus and gas stations were also showcased, representing a significant era of American culture. Some companies also used these cards as a way to advertise their products. These cards alone document many important events in history, making them quite valuable as collectibles.

I must confess I quite like them because of their unusual texture! :) Have you ever received on of these? What do you think of them?

We can help! Postcrossing has a handy tool to find missing or incorrect Postcard IDs!

Many people don’t seem to realize this, and instead post their requests for help on their profiles or Facebook/Twitter, in hopes of reaching the sender… but it’s much quicker and efficient if you ask us! Vicki, our fantastic forum administrator, is an ace at tracking lost postcard IDs, and can usually fix you up in no time! :)

So, what do you need to do to get some help? Just fill up this handy form with as much information as you can and wait. That’s it! The form is linked on the page where you go to register a postcard, on the right side column.

Before you do that though, please note the following:

• Make sure that the postcard is an official Postcrossing postcard and not a thank you postcard or a direct swap.
• You can try to enter the correct Postcard ID many times without consequence. So, why not try a different combination? For instance, sometimes 1's can look like 7's, 3's and 5's can look like 8's, etc. Don’t worry, the Postcrossing system will not let you register a postcard that does not belong to you.
• Note that postcards with postcard IDs over one year old cannot be registered.

If that didn’t fix the problem, then feel free to submit a Unknown ID request. You only need to do this once for each postcard. If you make a mistake, just delete the request on your Received postcards’ page and enter a new one.

Additionally, if you find the Postcard ID and register the postcard before you receive a response, please delete the request. You can delete any request by clicking the delete button for the request on your received postcards list.

By following all the items above, most postcards with missing or unknown Postcard IDs can be registered. Oh, by the way, to reduce the chances that a postcard that you have sent has these problems, be sure to check out our recommendations on where to write the Postcard ID on postcards.

That’s it! Have fun, and pass the word! :)

We usually don’t write much here on the blog about what we do behind the scenes to keep Postcrossing running for you, but keeping your data secure is a priority and something we work hard for.

If you follow the news, you might have heard about a recent internet security problem known as Heartbleed (aka CVE-2014–0160). This bug has affected a significant part of the web by making it vulnerable to expose data that should otherwise be secure.

While we have no evidence that any accounts on Postcrossing have been harmed, within 24h we have patched all our servers and changed our SSL certificates, and so have the vendors of services that we use to bring this website to you.

Nonetheless, and to be extra careful, we recommend that as a precaution you take the time to change your password in Postcrossing and other websites that you use. This is an advice you will probably see in many other websites in the coming days and it is our recommendation as well.

We will continue to do our best to keep your data safe. If you have any questions, just get in touch.