Question About Maximum Cards

I just learned there is something called maximum cards that are largely something collected out of the USA so hopefully this is the correct forum to ask my question. Everything I have found on the internet only shows the front where the postage stamp is canceled on the image of the postcard. My question is, are there addresses on the back of the cards and sent through the mail or are they blank. And if they are blank do people have to go to a post office in person to get the cancellation?

Thank you

Hahahaha! Does anyone ever look?

The serious answer is that the reverse of the card may matter to some, but it doesn't seem to be important to collectors.

Myself, I think the practice is a little over the top, but who am I to judge?

EDIT: I should add, too, that, it appears that most collectors have the card hand stamped or perhaps done by a service. Most maxis on display seem perfectly cancelled.

KGB,

So you are saying they don't go through the mails?

Thanks

They could, technically speaking. I, for one, would be more impressed with the practice if that were the case.

I probably shouldn't speak for those who are wild about it, however. And I certainly don't know enough about First Day of Issue cancels in Europe.

The objective, as I understand it, is to have maximum correlation and tie between stamp, day of issue cancel, and related postcard image. Apparently it's bad form to just repeat the image of the stamp on the postcard, though I've seen it often enough.

I suppose that what differentiates the maxim card from cachet first day covers is that the maxim card's image must be prepared in advance whereas a cachet can be printed onto a first day cover at anytime.

Theoretically speaking, a cachet that is clearly tied to stamp and first day cancel could be called a maxi. (Let the arguing begin!)

I didn't realize maximum cards actually had first day cancellations on them. I also didn't know people printed cachets on American FDC after the fact either.

Here's an example where the cancel is--to my best knowledge--the day of issue, but there is no special cancel for that date. You'll see also that these cards were especially prepared and limited in number.

To answer your question as to whether they go through the mails and have people's addresses on them the answer is basically no, though I am sure you could find a few here and there that were sent through the mail. For the most part these are created as purely philatelic sales items either by postal aurthorities or by dealers who get them canceled as a favor and they never see the actual mail. Many FDCs are the same - many of these are either handed to a clerk who cancels them and hands them back to the customer, or they get canceled in large batches either for the postal department that made them or for the dealer who prepared them, again never seeing the mails.

https://goscf.com/t/35617 ... the Maximaphily thread is a good place for these questions, as well as a place to learn more about the breadth of what is preferred, acceptable, common, rare, etc.

I have certainly seen non-FDoI DIY Maxi cards; they are the ones I like best.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

IkeyPikey,

Thanks for providing the term Maximaphily. I was able to find the following two very good documents using that search term:

1) What is MAXIMAPHILY? By Nicos Rangos FIP Maximaphily Commission former chairman

http://www.maximaphily.info/Article...LY%20_1_.pdf

2) special regulations for evaluation of Maximaphily exhibits

http://www.f-i-p.ch/regulation/pdf/...Srev_000.pdf

There are a lot more strict rules than I would have imagined.

KGB & Kimo,

Thanks to you guys too.

I received a postcard many years ago that I thought was really strange so I kept it. Now I'm wondering if it's a Maximum card.

You and me both, brother ;)

http://www.virginstamps.com/world_m...maximum.html ... a nice introductory article

http://www.virginstamps.com/ ... search 'maximum card' to browse their inventory

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

And don't forget there is an entire forum of World Picture Postcards

https://goscf.com/f/31

Ok, I found the card that I received in mail that someone sent as a postcard on the reverse. I think its possibly postmarked 1982 on the front, but the USA postmark on the back is much more recent. I don't know anything about the card and had just saved it because I thought it was weird there was a foreign stamp on the wrong side of the card.

Anyone know about this card, the stamp, or the country its from?

I do not know about the card, but it is pretty. The stamp is from Switzerland and the cancellation is not a first day cancel but a special cancel celebrating world championship dressage. The stamp is Scott 731 and was issued 23 August 1982. This card is still considered a Maximum card!
By the way, I wish you could scan the other side of this card and show us the address side. You can blank out the actual address!


Peter

Peter,

Thanks for the information. Here is the address side per your request: