Postcrossing Blog

Good news, everyone! On January 2nd, Belpochta (the Postal Operator of Belarus), will launch a new Postcrossing stamp! Talk about starting the New Year with a bang! :)

Here’s what it will look like:

Isn’t it bright and cheerful? Each individual stamp measures 28×30mm and was designed by Inga Turlo.

The Belarusian Postcrossing community will be hosting a meetup on the launch day, which will take place in Minsk’s main post office. Stamps will be bought, and lots of cards will be signed and stamped with the special first day of issue cancellation mark… so if you’re in the area, do join them! :)

We’ve said a couple of times before, but it bears repeating: it’s an incredible distinction for Postcrossing to be featured on a postage stamp. Our heartfelt thank you to Belpochta for deeming the project worthy of such an honor – and of course, to all the postcrossers in Belarus. This stamp wouldn’t be possible without your enthusiasm! :)

Happy holidays everyone… and happy Postcrossing!

andrea209 (aka Andrea) lives in Bielefeld, and is a regular at the Postcrossing Bielefeld meetups. It was there that she first introduced us to her curious hobby: bottle-cap collecting! Her massive collection is now in the tens of thousands specimens, from 147 different countries… very impressive!!

Here is what she had to say:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

It was a family-meeting around Christmas when my sister and her kids told me about postcrossing. And my sister showed me her first postcards from countries I never expected to get postcards from. So when we come home (it was around midnight) I started my computer and signed up right away.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My husband and I have a very crazy hobby – we collect bottle-caps. Yes, your are right; these little things you find on beer-bottles, soda, pop or something else. You want to know more? Feel free to look at www.asippel.de. As other Postcrosser support our collection we now have bottle caps from Iran and North Korea.

And I love to paint. More than 100 of my sent postcards are painted ones and I’m very happy about every postcrossing-profile which asks for handmade cards.

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

After being a member for some time I find out that I love very colorful cards or paintings by some special artists, like Leonid Afremov (I’m still waiting for my first card) or Victoria Kirdiy. And I love lighthouses and teddy bears. As I received so many gorgeous cards it’s hard to say which one I like most…….

My husband gave me this rack as a birthday present – the perfect place to keep and show my received cards.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman or your postoffice!

This is my favorite mailbox. Just next to the shop where I buy all my stamps.

Have you met any other members in real life?

Oh yes, I have met a lot of other postcrossers and every time it was wonderful. I’ve attended all four International meetups in Bielefeld (the meeting-point is just 2 km from my home), also meetups in Cologne, Münster and Soltau.

Last year I also organized the first meetup for postcrossers from Bielefeld and surroundings. And since we had so much fun we will meet again next spring!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

Yes, I have, up to now 4 people. My sister-in-law and her sister and also two ladies I met when I stayed at a rehab in 2010. And 3 of them are still active postcrossers!

Some time ago, we stumbled on katilemur's profile and were intrigued by a request which read “draw, please, the Dachshund – is a short-legged, long-bodied dog. It’s easy for drawing, really!”.

We wondered… did she receive a lot of drawn dachshunds on her postcards? Turns out… yes, she did!

From the top-left corner (with permission), drawings by zheka-french, Anja71, flooranna, Lord5005, cami21901, katkarapusalaatti, Bookorama, Ella_Grape and julykachanova.

A lot of drawers seem a bit reserved about their drawing skills, but they still gave it a go! How cool is that? :D

We were curious so we asked Ekaterina… why dachshunds?

“Once I wanted to get something more interesting than just ”greetings from… happy postcrossing". I thought how to encourage people to do little more than they used to. And I’ve decide the simple drawing is what I need. So remained only to choose a theme. It had to be something simple, have the typical features and everyone should know it and the result must be funny… I guess it’s very easy to draw the dachshund for anyone, even if you don’t know how to draw: long body with short legs! I’ve got the dachshund and I like this breed. So my choice was predetermined =)"

Drawing by BenjaminYuxin.

Great work, everyone! :) You can see more lovely dachshunds on katilemur's collection here.

218 years ago today, the great Rowland Hill was born! If his name does not ring a bell, read on – we have tales of postal corruption and innovation to share with you today!

Once upon a time, the British postal system was… a mess. Expensive, complex and widely corrupt, it was seen as wasteful and inadequate for the needs of a growing industrial nation. For instance, did you know that correspondence at the time was paid by the recipient and it depended on the distance travelled and number of paper sheets it contained? As a result, people often cross-wrote letters to save space or encoded messages on the cover of the letter – which could be analyzed and then discarded without payment. A significant percentage of letter-writers would also abuse the system by sending their correspondence under the personal frank of members of the parliament (who could send them without paying).

Rowland Hill, a teacher from Worcestershire, studied the state of the postal service for several years, before producing a pamphlet called “Post Office Reform; its Importance and Practicability”, in early 1837. In in, Hill called for “low and uniform rates” according to weight, rather than distance:

“The postage on all letters received in a post-town, and delivered in the same, or any other post-town in the British Isles, shall be at the uniform rate of one penny per half ounce”.

He also showed that most of the costs incurred in mail delivery were not for transport but rather handling at the origins and destinations – and these could be greatly reduced if pre-payment of postage by the sender was implemented. In order to achieve this, Rowland Hill proposed official pre-printed lettersheets and adhesive stamps – a piece of paper “covered at the back with a glutinous wash”.

The plan was met with resistance from the part of Royal Mail, but also with plenty of support from traders, merchants and bankers, fed up with the high costs and the corruption of the system in place. With a lot of pressure from these groups, Rowland Hill was appointed to the Treasury, in order to put his plan into operation: the Postal Reform was born!

A design competition was held to figure out how to implement the prepaid postage, and after a few false starts, the Penny Black made its debut in May 1840. It featured an engraving of a very young Queen Victoria, based on a commemorative medal sculpted by William Wyon.

The success of Rowland Hill’s reforms were mixed. One one hand, the financial cost of the Uniform Penny Post was disastrous and it would take over 30 years for Royal Mail to reach once more the revenue levels they had before 1840. On the other hand, postal traffic was greatly increased, since the lower cost made postal communications more affordable and accessible to the masses – paving the way to the development of many sectors of the economy.

Rowland Hill was knighted in 1860 for his many services to the United Kingdom. His legacy lives on in the form of the modern postal service.

Notice something different? Postcrossing has donned its winter theme and is ready for the holidays! This is the season for generosity, and this year we’re really excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Deutsche Post to make your postcards be part of a good cause. Here’s the deal:

So that’s it, really simple! If you’re in Germany, all you have to do is keep sending postcards! If your December postcards are registered before the end of February 2014, you’ll be contributing to this cause.

And though only postcards sent from Germany count, there’s always a receiver in every postcard exchange – so each time a card from Germany is registered, the recipient will be indirectly contributing to this donation as well!

To make things even more interesting, there will also be some nice prizes for the participants:

• 50 bus tickets for the new Postbus service, valid on any trip on their network.
• 20 custom-designed stamp sheets, each including 15 international postage stamps with Postcrossing’s logo;

The winners will be picked up by Paulo's random number generator in early March 2014, when we will also announce the value raised by the German postcrossers to Stiftung Lesen here in the blog.

Stiftung Lesen is a German non-profit organization, working to increase literacy – especially among children and adolescents. They promote reading through several different activities, such as the “My first letter” contest.

So… what are you waiting for? If you are in Germany, grab a pen and your stack of postcards and stamps, and start writing! The more cards you send, the more you’ll contribute to this cause – and the more chances you’ll have of winning a prize! :)

PS – As always, we respect your private information and will not share it with any company without your express permission. The full details of this campaign can be read here (German only).