Postcrossing Blog

Everyone does silly things once in a while… and postcrossers are no exception. So we were thrilled to discover a thread on the forum about the little accidents that happen in Postcrossing, and had a lot of fun reading through it! Here are some of our favourite accidents:

Daisy_chain says:

I heard of a friend that someone wanted to send postcards from when they where on holiday and threw them into a red “mailbox” only to find out a while later that these wheren’t actual mailboxes but trash cans!

Lori wrote:

Another time I thought I was writing to a person who liked cat cards so I told them all about my cats etc. Then I realized it was a person who was afraid of cats! So I had to put an address label over the address. Luckily I didnt send the card out!

Zeroday says:

I had a stack of cards ready to take to the Post office. Official cards and some RR swaps. They were sitting on the edge of my sofa with a throw pillow next to them. I grabbed the whole bunch of cards and headed to the Post office. About 10 days later for some reason I reached over and picked up the throw pillow and saw one card that had slipped in between the pillow and sofa. It was a private swap card and when I saw it I was horrified. I mailed it and send a very “I’m sorry” u2u to the person…We both got quite a laugh out of it…

Swollib wrote:

A couple of times I’ve put some of my received postcards in my postcards-to-send pile and sent them out accidentally. Both times the post office was nice enough to return them to me!

What about you? Do you have any interesting postal stories or accidents? Leave a comment below or on the forum thread with your stories!

Every now and then, we get emails asking us about specific types of postcards. Instead of replying to them one by one, we thought a series of posts explaining them was in order. First up, Maxicards!

What are Maxicards? These maximum cards, as they are often known, are postcards that feature an image (a monument, animal, event, etc) along with a stamp of a very similar or related image on the picture side of the card. There are actually thousands of them in circulation today, as they are regularly issued by the Post Offices themselves – with collectors paying big bucks for originals. See some examples on the Virgin Stamps website.

Maxicards have a long and storied history. The first Maxicard was mailed by a tourist in Egypt in 1893, who sent a picture postcard to a friend in Germany. The postcard depicted a pyramid and the Sphinx, and was mailed after he stamped it with a pyramid and Sphinx stamp. He accidentally placed the stamp on the view side of the postcard and thus the maximum card was born from his mistake. Whether later cards were accidents or by design, the craze took off. In 1978, the International Federation of Philately (FIP) officially recognized maximaphily as a branch of philately, basically saying that Maxicards are legitimate.

So, how can you create a Maxicard? You might purchase the postcard and related stamp, put the stamp on the image side and send it, but you have not actually created a Maxicard. Why is this? You are missing another important step that collectors look for: not only do you want the stamp and the postcard to be related, but you also want the postmark to tie in as well! Only then will you have a full-fledged maximum card. Learn more about creating a maximum card on this Maximum Cards website.

Do you have a favourite type of postcard that you’d like to see featured, or are you intrigued by a certain format? Let us know in the comments!

On the first day of Chinese New Year, 23rd January, the Singapore Philatelic Museum opened the doors to this year’s Dragon exhibition, which is a great success!

They’ve received more than 100 postcards, that have been placed in a special album on the Dragon’s Lair. Mishelle Lim, who works at the museum (and has been busy replying to all received postcards!), tells us that both adults and children like to peruse the album and read the messages on them!

Once again, thank you to everyone who participated, and if you’re ever in Singapore, do visit the Philatelic Musem! :)

Over the years, we have received a lot of questions about Dick Bruna and his Miffy character. This little rabbit has been tugging at our heartstrings for some time now, so we wanted to find out more about who Bruna is and where Miffy comes from.

Dick Bruna is a Dutch artist who was born in the Dutch province of Utrecht in 1927. He came from a long line of publishers, as his great-grandfather started a publishing company called A.W. Bruna & Zoon in 1866, which was then passed down through the family for many generations. It grew to be one of the largest publishing companies in the Netherlands under the management of Bruna’s father, Albert Bruna. Bruna’s first job was as an artist, creating covers for books at his father’s publishing company.

In the late 1950s, the Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) character was born. Bruna has said that his inspiration for the white, Hello Kitty-esque rabbit was from a rabbit that he observed hopping around his vacation home while he was with his children and his wife. Bruna wanted to take the image of the rabbit and turn him into cartoon form. From there, the image of Miffy was born. Of course, Miffy has gone through a number of subtle transformations throughout the years, yet Bruna has still stuck to the same basic, happy-go-lucky rabbit that so many people have fallen in love with.

Bruna went on to create more than 120 books, most of which are about the fluffy bunny that is Miffy. Readers have come to truly identify with this female rabbit because she is drawn in a very simplistic style. She is not complicated for children to identify with, and her sweet stories have inspired millions. Bruna’s style is defined by simple, clean lines and basic shapes that are very non-threatening for children.

Miffy is now a popular character, not only on books but on greeting cards and postcards as well, bringing cheer wherever she goes. For more about Bruna and Miffy, visit Miffy’s website. And if you’re ever in Utrecht, don’t miss the Dick Bruna museum!

Today’s Spotlight interview comes from North Wales. FairyFoot, or Mia is a mother and a gardener, and has interesting hobbies such as Geogaching or hosting Toy Voyagers. Here is what she had to say to our interview questions:

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

I was looking for penpals via various websites when I saw Postcrossing mentioned in many profiles I read. I decided to have a look at what Postcrossing was all about and joined immediately. I like the idea of having nice post come through my letterbox and postcards kept my mailbox happy while I was waiting for penpal letters.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I like coastal and forest walks, photographing nature.. I am a penpaller and have made many new penfriends via Postcrossing. I also discovered Geocaching, the GPS treasure hunt, but I haven’t placed any caches of my own out there. I also came across Travelling Toys/ToyVoyagers too and host many soft toy visitors here.

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

Being a ToyVoyager host, I take the toys down to town and take that opportunity to send postcards on their way. This is Frankie Blue:

Below on the left is the letterbox I have in the front door. My nice postman suggested to cover the bottom window in the door to prevent people from seeing mail that may build up if we are away.

Above, on the right, is the little post office I visit out of town to buy the special issue stamps from the nice sub-postmaster. I store my postcards in boxes, and only recently organised by country after seeing toucans in a television interview:

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

I am not a serious postcard collector. One of my favourite postcards has to be JP-171165 The words say it all.

Another favourite is IS-8935 the Imagine Peace Tower memorial to John Lennon, in Iceland, the base has “imagine peace” carved in 25 different languages.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I think perhaps my favourite part of the Postcrossing process is the sending. I usually have a decent range of postcards to choose from at home (and am always on the look out for postcards I think will make someone happy).

Is there anything that you are passionate about?

I love growing my own vegetables and fruit down the allotment or in the garden. Anyone got any recipes for pumpkins, marrows, beetroot, redcurrants, whitecurrants…?! I try to grow organically and have stopped buying composts containing peat.