Show Us Your Oldest Picture Postcard From Any Country

Those are great, Rick!

Thanks Jleb1979, I got them at a local stamp club meeting.....they were marked in pencil at $30.00 from SOMEWHERE.....a friend of mine passed on them because he thought that's what the going price was. I got them for .25 cents apeice.....well, now my friend is wanting to buy one, but I'm not wanting to let them separate! He gets so mad sometimes because we share interests and then when we are at same meetings, auctions and events....wham-bam, competition results!!

That reminds me of book shopping with friends who have similar interests. Usually we help each other out, but occasionally it's a dog-eat-dog "This one's mine!" situation.

When I went to a conference in Valencia, Spain, the local bookstores were very low on the things I would have bought, because a couple of friends had arrived a day or two earlier and already gutted their stock. On the flip-side, I got a load of great books at low prices from one of those friends when he was getting rid of stuff before moving house. (I would have bought even more from him, but shipping from Ireland to California was a factor. 3/8 of what I paid was for shipping costs.)

Erilaz....LOL, one of my buddies told a mutual friend he hated going to the various bourses, and club meetings with me because of our mutual collecting interests.....he's always trying to get to the good stuff first! I usually have to buy something from him if I really need it. We do tell each other about things we pass on, but he has been known to buy something just so he can sell it to me later!!! I usually find out and then pretend I dont want it when he offers to sell....!! Devious....

Erilaz.....I just remember him telling me that I could look at a box of postcards he had bought when he was through "processing" them. That was in 2021.....I'm still waiting to look at what he didnt want!!!

I keep on getting older and older ones....

My most recent ebay purchase was postmarked on 28 Dec. 1894 (Meiji 27). In addition to being older than any picture postcard I owned previously, it has other features that made it a must-have. For starters, it's a Japanese postal card with traditional-style artwork depicting Japanese women. Secondly, it's a New Year's card (nengajô), which is a culturally significant thing in Japan. It was mailed to convey New Year's greetings for 1895 from Z.P. Maruya & Co., Publishers & Booksellers, in Tokyo, to Houghton Mifflin & Co. in New York City.

As a lover of books and bookstores, this was irresistible. Founded in 1869, Maruya was Japan's first joint stock corporation, and as Maruzen-Yushodo Co., Ltd., it remains Japan's foremost purveyor of English-language books. Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is still a major publisher in the U.S.A. I first became aware of them as the American publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien's works in hardback and trade paperback, and I've even done some freelance editorial work for them.

The oldest postally used picture postcards I've got are from 1896.

One of them is shown below - a multi view lithographical picture postcard with "Gruss aus Riga", greetings from Riga. It was sent January 7, 1896 (Julian calendar)/ January 19, 1896 (Gregorian calendar) from Riga, Russian Empire to Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg within the German Empire, received January 22, 1896 (Gregorian calendar).

I have two cards from 1899, written just a few months apart, that are my oldest ones, so I will post both.

First, a card from Cassel, Germany (now spelled Kassel), written April 16, with an indistinct Cassel postmark of April 17. Unfortunately it was cut down, probably to fit someone's postcard album.



Edited to add improved images.

Secondly, a card from Montigny, France, written October 24, 1899, with indistinct postmark, but a clear Devon, PA receiving CDS.

Postmark from Moret s(ur) Loing
Seine et Marne

Very nice collateral piece to my Montigny card, vayolene!

Just discovered this topic -- lots of great cards posted here. My oldest from the USA is from 1897, which is *very* early for a US picture postcard. America was about six or seven years behind the Euro craze for PPCs and I've found most of the oldest ones were mailed home from the US to Europe.

Here is the earliest real photo image (cyanotype) on a postal card I know of. December 1884 from Hawaii. My research has not found postal cards from any country with real photo image prior to 1897. Mine might be the earliest recorded by 13 years! A unique, exhibition item.

Beautiful postcard Hawaii.

One question so I can learn. How did you determine the year 1884?

The postal card (Hawaii Scott UX2) is cancelled by Honolulu cds type 234.62 dated December 15. This postmark was used in the second period from February 1884 until May 1886 (ref. hawaiianstamps.com). Looking at shipping departures from Honolulu (ref.The Pacific Commerical Advertiser newspaper) and shipping arrivals in San Francisco (ref. Daily Alta California newspaper),I can deduce that the postal card was sent on the SS Mariposa arriving in San Francisco on December 22, 1884 which matches the SF arrival postmark (red) of Dec 22. Thanks for your interest.