Postcrossing Blog

Stories about the Postcrossing community and the postal world

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The day has finally arrived for this trio of colorful stamps to make their debut, and we couldn’t be more pleased about them! 😍 We got ours just yesterday, and here they are, in all their glory:

A set of Guernsey Postcrossing stamps and postcards, each featuring illustrations of a crab, goat and puffin mailing a postcard from the island

Pretty neat, right? The Chance Crab, Herm Puffin and Golden Guernsey Goat illustrations were made by Chris Griffiths from the local design studio Two Degrees North and the stamps look even better in person!

The three stamps, as well as FDCs, maxicards, normal postcards and presentation packs are available on Guernsey Post’s website, which ships internationally. I wish we could go to Guernsey to send a bunch of postcards… but we’ll settle for sending them to all our friends from here. We’ll probably have a few extra, so if you’d like to receive one, do leave a comment below — we’ll be happy to raffle a few postcards. 😊

We’re really looking forward to sending and seeing these fun stamps and postcards pop up in mailboxes all around the world!

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Good news, everyone! We’ve been biting our tongues and holding our breaths, but now we can finally share the news with you all: there are 3 new Postcrossing-themed stamps coming in the next few months, and they’re all great! 😍

First up, Guernsey! The three colourful stamps feature animal species that can be found on the Bailiwick: the Golden Guernsey Goat, the Chancre Crab and the Herm Puffin, all mailing postcards around the islands on Guernsey’s blue mailboxes. Such a clever way to mix Postcrossing with their own national living treasures!

Guernsey Postcrossing stamps

These will come out on June 10th, and feature a cool easter egg… if you look really closely, you’ll see they’re being mailed to some of us at the Postcrossing team: the UK stamp is heading out to Nicky (aka shanaqui), the European one is coming to Paulo and me, and the Rest of the World goes out to Vicki (aka mundoo) in Australia. Those are fictional addresses, by the way.

They’re coming out on June 10th, ahead of Postcrossing’s birthday, and they’ll be available for pre-order from Guernsey’s online shop from May 27th, along with maxicards and other fun philatelic collectibles.

Next up, Belarus is issuing this fun Happy Postcrossing stamp! Coincidentally, this is another stamp featuring animals mailing postcards around the world, and it will be issued on July 10th.

Belarus Postcrossing stamp

Belpochta doesn’t have an (international) online shop, but if you’re interested in the stamp you can get in touch with them following the instructions on this page. Turns out, Belpochta does have an international online shop, where they sell stamps and other products — you can find it here. Thank you Lunushka and Capricorn_Belarus for letting us know!

And last but not least, Austria is issuing a Postcrossing-themed stamp in July as well. They chose a more abstract approach to the theme, which aims to represent how the postcard exchanges happen in Postcrossing:

Postcrossing Austrian stamp

The Austrian stamp will be launched on July 14th, which is Postcrossing’s birthday, but should be available for pre-order on their online shop from July 2nd onwards.

And that’s all the good news for today! We look forward to seeing all these playful stamps in many postcards traveling all around the world, filling their recipients’ mailboxes with color and spreading the word about our beloved hobby. 📮

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After their stay in London, the Little Mail Carriers did a detour to the beautiful island of Guernsey, to have a rest from the hustle and bustle of the city. Denise (aka Tranchile) was their host for the stay, and had fun showing them around, despite the windy days that coincided with their visit.

Hello from Guernsey! 👋 We’re so glad to be here with our host Denise, who promised to give us the tour of the island where she lives. Shall we get started?

Little Chapel in Guernsey

One of highlights of Guernsey is this tiny chapel (appropriately called “Little Chapel”), built by Brother Déodat in July 1914. It is meant to be a miniature version of the grotto and basilica in Lourdes, France and is covered in pebbles, shells and broken colorful china. Now and then, volunteers repair the damage done by the weather over the years… Denise even remembers donating a broken cereal bowl of hers for repairs, when she was a child!

Cobo Beach

This is Cobo Beach, one of twenty eight beaches in Guernsey! There’s is a chip shop by the sea wall, and we saw some locals eating fish and chips from a bag there while watching the waves. Denise tells us that a film screen is put on the beach at low tide during summer, and the hotel opposite has a balcony and there is a big rocks concert played from there whilst people sit on the beach and listen to it… Sounds wonderful!

Looking at the Bailiwick's islands

We were hoping to visit one of the other Islands that come under the Bailiwick of Guernsey, but during our stay it was unusually windy and the ferries were cancelled. :( We had to hold onto each other whilst looking over the QE11 Marina at three of the islands instead.

From left to right, the first island is Herm, and you can just see the glorious sand there. It’s a quiet place with just one hotel, several cottages to rent and two camp sites. It also has a school for just about six children and the staff who work there. Jethou is the middle island, which is privately leased and not open to the public, and the bigger island on the right is Sark. It has no traffic, but if you are fit you can cycle around the island, or use horse and carts to go around at a more gentle pace.

Castle Cornet

Above you can see Castle Cornet, which was built in the 13th century, to defend the islands from the French. It’s been attacked and captured several times over the years, and finally returned to the islands in 1947 after reconstruction. Today it houses several museums and period gardens, and this half-term the schoolchildren have been dressed as Harry Potter characters and making spell books etc inside the main museum. How fun!

In the summer, a cannon is fired there at noon each day, which Denise tells us can be heard all over the island.

Guernsey's Number 1 Postbox

This is something we were looking forward to see: Guernsey’s Number 1 Postbox! It is the oldest working postbox in the British Isles and was put there by the Post Office Surveyor Anthony Trollope on 8th February 1853, as an experiment to see how well they would work for collecting mail. He had been impressed with the system of pillar boxes in France, and decided to test them on the Channel Islands. The experiment was so successful that they were later introduced in the UK.

Although the first postbox was red, all the modern ones are a lovely blue color.

Blue Guernsey postbox

The Market Square is a lively place in St. Peter Port, and it was there that we met 2 little friends, next to this curious statue… Can you guess why they made a statue of donkeys? It turns out that people from Guernsey are nicknamed “Guernsey Donkeys”, while those from nearby Jersey are known as “Crapauds” (or toads)!

Market Square and Donkey statues

Since we were just around the corner from it, Denise and our friends took us to see the Town Church, built in 1475. We looked up in awe at its beautiful stained glass windows and ornate pews, where the Liberation service is held every year on May 9th.

Town Church Town Church

Can you spot the gargoyle in the roof below? The white building next to it is a pub, and so this gargoyle is said to make this the closest church to a pub in the British Isles — it’s even in the Guinness, apparently! Maybe we’ll go in and grab something to eat before hopping back into our envelope…

Town Church gargoyle

See you later everyone… or, as they say around here, à la perchoine!

PS – Thank you Denise for showing the Little Mail Carriers around Guernsey! Where will they pop up next…? 🤔

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Hurray! July 14th is Postcrossing’s anniversary and we couldn’t be happier! Eleven years of connecting the world, one postcard at a time… feels great!

Postcrossing is not just a platform or a bit of code on a server. What makes this project great is definitely its community… which means YOU! Every single one of you, that perhaps looked at this idea with suspicion in the beginning but decided to jump in anyway and give it a go. All of you who ensure the world’s mailboxes are filled with smiles and kind words. Those of you who help each other in the forum, who organize and attend meetups, who send us tips and ideas, who send thousands of postcards to lovely ladies on their birthday. We’re thankful for your trust, support and enthusiasm in the past 11 years. Long live Postcrossing!

A couple of postal operators neatly lined up their Postcrossing-themed stamp launches to mark the occasion, so today, Poland and Guernsey see new stamps come to life!

Polish Post drew inspiration on the theme of traveling through postcards, and re-imagined a “postcrossers’ suitcase”… which naturally has a mailbox on the side!

Polish Postcrossing stamp

To celebrate the stamp launch, Polish Post is holding several events in Wrocław. Among the activities, there will be a free tour of the Post and Telecommunication Museum in Wrocław, a competition with some prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy the new stamp and even receive a special cancellation mark.

Today is also the day two new stamps from Guernsey Post make their debut! International postage is being updated, and the stamps (for Europe and Rest of the World) reflect this change. Guernsey Post’s new stamps were drawn by Sue Hamon and aim to share the island’s rich flora and fauna with the world through the postcards they’ll be traveling in.

Guernsey Postcrossing stamp

Guernsey Post is also launching a set of related products along with the stamp, on their online shop, including first day covers and maxicards.

So, happy birthday Postcrossing! Now it’s time to blow those candles and grab a piece of cake while we write some postcards — do join us! :)

PS – Speaking of stamps, the German Postcrossing community has been trying for years to convince their Finance Ministry that a Postcrossing-themed stamp would be a good idea… with little success so far. As Germany is the country with most postcards sent in the project, we think they deserve it. So if you have an extra card, give them a hand in turning this dream into reality!

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Hurray! The Guernsey Postcrossing stamp has just launched today and is now making its way around the world to many happy mailboxes!

Guernsey Post Postcrossing stamp! intro

In order to celebrate the event, postcrossers from the island and abroad got together today to send their first cards with the shiny new stamp. Guernsey Post kindly prepared a room for the eager postcrossers, who wrote and stamped to their heart’s content…

Guernsey Post Postcrossing stamp launch

… and ate the delicious cake a talented baker at the post office did for us! Isn’t it gorgeous?

Guernsey Post Postcrossing cake

The local newspaper and TV channel were also in attendance, and so we hope that a few islanders will find out about the project in the media tomorrow and decide to join!

Michael and the stamp

And here’s Michael (aka GIBSONMS) with the stamp! Michael was the enthusiastic postcrosser who approached Guernsey Post with the idea for a stamp.

Our big thank you to him for his initiative and to Dawn Gallienne at Guernsey Post, for deeming Postcrossing worthy of this honor. We really appreciate it!

It was a great day! Happy Postcrossing, everyone! :)


PS – If you’re interested, the stamp, postcard, and postcard+stamp+cancellation mark combos can be purchased online at the Guernsey Stamps website.