A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
Example of a court card, postmarked 1899, showing Robert Burns and his cottage and monument in Ayr
Postcard depicting people boarding a train at the Shawnee Depot in Colorado, late 1800s.
Lipman's Postal Card
"Feldpost-Correspondenzkarte" (lit. field post correspondence card) used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870
Stamp collecting is the collecting of postage stamps and related objects. It is an area of philately, which is the study of stamps. It has been one of the world's most popular hobbies since the late nineteenth century with the rapid growth of the postal service, as a stream of new stamps was produced by countries that sought to advertise their distinctiveness through their stamps.
Le Philatéliste by François Barraud (1929)
A young stamp collector, 1954.
Queen Victoria's profile was a staple on 19th century stamps of the British Empire, shown here on a half-penny stamp of the Falkland Islands, 1891.
Clockwise from top left: hinge-mounted stamp, stamp about to be hinge-mounted, stamp damaged by a hinge, stamp hinges
