Cataloguing Post Cards With Stamps On Back

Cheers, it's probably just a footbridge now,
I had not thought of using Google earth.


Here is what your database would look like in acdsee
using your first and last entry
(naturally you should start the file name with scott number)

It's not obligatory to have a stamp image,
you can use a "blank"


This is your thumbnail view



One click and you have your "details" view
(exactly the same as what you type in your spreadsheet)
in fact if you have two stamps similar
you do a "save as" and your next stamp has the typing
already completed, ready for editing)

Hi Cynical and All

My cards are all listed in a Word file which I have printed out and I take this file with me to shows to refer to when looking through dealers boxes to add more cards to my collection.

Let's assume that I collect the London, Ontario region of Canada.

Since everything in my collection is listed in alphbetical order, this care would be listed under the letter "T" and with the following information:

"T"

Thames River Bridge and University, London, Ont., Canada #113337
Publisher - Valentine & Sons
Colour litho card
Used

However, there are other things to consider. You may also cone across this same card with the same inscription in black and white (B/W) with or without the number. That, to me anyway, is another card. You may also come across the same card with the same view but printed by another publisher. This constitutes a different card as well.

Regarding the stamp used, I don't really list this because this is not my main focus when I am working with my cards. Some card I might duplicate because there is a specific cancellation I ned for my collection, so that cancel would be listed in my postal history section for London. For example. let's just say it was cancelled from London, in which case I would state in my file the following:

London eleven-bar "Duplex" cancellation dated 28 / 07 / 12. By tabulating this by itself is enough for me to know that there is most likely an Admiral stamp on it but this is for me personally. Other collectors would want to specify the particular stamp.

I have 2 sets of files really for my Muskoka / Parry Sound districts and one is specifically for the postcards only and the other one is for the postal history which wil include the types of cancellations and whether or not they are on cover, postcard or on piece.

Before I make this posting into a full length book, I will close here and post another one with an example of one of my Muskoka cards found in different variations.

Chimo

Bujutsu

For any given area, there are "Main Street" scenes for any given town or city across Canada and the US. In the UK, I believe it is "High Street".

This is a predicament that we can all run in to. Let's say it is my area and with a scene of the main street in town here. Here are a few examples:

Main Street, Bracebridge, Muskoka
Publisher - CYKO
RP card (Real Photo), white borders, unused, undivided back
Main Street, Bracebridge, Muskoka
Publisher - Velox
RP card, no borders, divided back, unused

I can list well over a dozen "Main Street" cards and thay are either with different scenes of the street, the same scene but printed by a different publisher, which I will so state in my files.

I also have "Main Street" scenes that are colour litho cards with, without dividers on the back and numerous publishers. Then there are the same scenes in B/W, some are numbered and some are not. If they are numbered, that is a great help for me to decide if I have that card already or not in my collection when I am going through a dealer's box. This number is something like a form of registration.

There are so many variables here, but I am sure questions will be asked and it might be best if I can try to answer them one at a time, if possible <G>. They will not suit everyone's idea of keeping files, but it does work for me.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu: Thanks for your input. Using "Main Street" as an example was good as I now know that I have some "Main Street" cards. I guess for my stamped cards I'm going to have to widen my NOTES column to put all this info in but that isn't a problem as I am more interested in the information than I am in saving space.

You mentioned that you put that information in Word because you find it convenient at shows. Maybe a silly question but do you fit the info for one post card on a single line on a page and the pertinent words or phrases separated by a comma or do you just free-wheel and use as many lines as it takes since you are using Word? I assume there is something that you use to tell you where the post card is stored (i.e., box, album, safety deposit box, etc).

I may get around to putting another card on later this evening.

Hi Cynical

I try to use as few lines as possible really for a number of reasons. One reason being is that it won't take up too much space on a page once I have printed them out and another is for compactness because I do not want to be lugging around a massive volume to the stamp shows, just to cite a couple <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

Because it is an American card I placed it on the US Picture Postcards forum regarding postcards with people in them. Looking forward to how you would describe it for cataloguing purposes. It's cynical's lady from Bowbells, North Dakota.

Bujutsu: thanks for the comments on the other site, especially the "vertical" bit. Here is another one:




Although posted from Honeywood, Ontario (on the escarpment above Creemore, the famous beer town) on May 16, 1921 with a 2c George V (Scott#106) addressed to Paisley, Ontario. A line splits it down the middle. It is an English card based on the text, which says:

Inter-Art Co., Red Lion Square, London, W.C.;
No 1619
"COMIQUE" series;
British Manufacture Throughout

It must be a card someone had lying around after the war given the message.

i use ezstamp, and put notes in for postcards...the stamp images are already there.

Hi Cynical

You are quite welcome and I don't mind helping uot whenever or wherever I can.

The card you have scanned would be under the 'comic' or 'humourous' category and many were produced before and shortly after WW I.

A lot of publishers used their names down the center of the back of the card as the 'divider' line, whereas, other publishers used a single solid line down to the bottom of the card, or partially down in some cases.

Since I also class myself as a 'deltiologist' as well as a 'philatelist' , to me a card with the exact same photo or design, but with a different backing, would be a different card. I have a few examples in my Muskoka collection that shows the exact same image and the back of one is in stright fonts and the other in 'italicized' (sp) fonts and this constitutes a different card to me because it tells me that there is a 'possibility' that a second run of a design was popular in sales and the card was produced with the same scene a second time around.

Some of the Valentine & Sons cards will have the same scene and registered number on the card but with different coloured backing - -i.e. black lettering on the back or brown or green - - there are several possibilities.

Enough of my ranting

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu: what can you tell me re the registration number I see on some cards? Because post cards do not have an identifier number system (e.g., Scott) as with stamps do you give every card that you have in your collection a consecutive individual number for storage and retrieval purposes or are the cards grouped by category and then numbered within the category or whatever?

Hello Cynical

Not all the postcards will have a number anyway.

In my collection, I have examples of cards with the same scene that were published with and w/o a registration number. Some publishers were more prevalent printing cards with numbers than some of the other publishers. Quite often these numbers were a way of identifying a copyright for particular publisher and it was not uncommon to have different one used with identical scenes from other publishers but with the number of the original publisher. Why this was done, I don't know.

There is one company called the Photogelatine Engraving Company that is more commonly referrerd to as PECO. A person will say "I have a PECO card with such and such a design" etc. This company published identical scenes with and w/o numbers and in colour and B/W. In other words, you can find colour identical scenes with and w/o numbers plus B/W identical scenes (same as the colour versions) with and w/o numbers as well.(Other companies also used this procedure as well but I use PECO just as an example)

In most cases these numbers were a form of registration with any given company so that their inventory could be regulated. Photographers sometimes wanted this so that for and given scene, they were given credit. The original company to use a photographer's scene would register this number but, if another company wanted to use it for their own sales, you can find the same scene of another publisher but with the same registration number of the original publisher.

It is very complex really and takes a lot of reasearch.

Hope this clarifies what you are looking for?

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu: a sideline question: do you also collect " Canada Post Cards", what Americans call Postal Cards? I have a few dozen of them but searching on the internet for information about them did not prove fruitful nor was I able to find anything in any of the Canadian threads here. I find them interesting as they were a snappy little business tool and they often have intriguing messages on the back. The descriptions in my 1991 Canadian Scott appear limited, almost as if what was put in was put there as an after-thought.

Hi Cynical

Yes, I collect the Canadian postal cards.

I follow the Webb's Catalogue for those because I find that reference to be the best so far on that topic. Every now and then I will go to the Post Office to get caught up on the latest postal stationery items being put out to keep up to date.

I sometimes think that I collect too many things <G>

Chimo

Bujutsu

Bujutsu: thanks for the Webb connection. I will so a search on it. No relation to that famous hamburger place north of Orillia?

LOL - no relation at all but I can tell you that I have had their hamburgers and they are good. I can also say that the Webb catalogue is also just as good but it doesn't affect the taste buds <G>

If you are interested in the catalogue, you might want to email Saskatoon Stamps at ssc@saskatoonstamp.com

because they might have a copy of it there (?)

Chimo

Bujutsu