subject: Story of post card [print this page] Story of post card Story of post card
The post card was invented in 1869 in Austria. It proved to be so popular that in the first month itself 1.5 million of them were sold. Other countries were quick to see the usefulness of this straw-coloured rectangular scrap of paper. Britain introduced the post card in 1872. It came to India seven years later in 1879. The earliest post card to be sold in India cost 3 paise. Within 9 months post cards worth 7.5 lakh rupees were sold in India.
Picture post cards became popular in 1889. That was the year in which the Eiffel Tower in Paris (France) was opened to the public. To make the event easily understood by the general public, the French printed post cards carrying the picture of the Eiffel Tower on one side for sale. Tourists could post these cards at a special post office set up on the top of the Eiffel Tower itself. The post cards of earlier days had some special features. People were allowed to write messages on only one side of the post card. The other side of the card was exclusively for writing the address of the person to whom it was to be sent. The British gave up this rule causing difficulty in 1902.
Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, was one of the most frequent users of the post card. Perhaps to honour the memory of this famous user of the post card, the Indian postal department issued special Gandhi post cards in 1951 and 1969. Although the post card is the cheapest way of sending messages, printing post cards is a losing bargain for the Indian postal department. Each post card, which now sells at 50 paise, costs the postal department a sizeable amount to produce. To offset this loss, the department has found many new uses for the post card. On 21st July, 1975, post cards carrying the message "Save your crops from insects and rodents" in Hindi were printed. Later, many other government slogans and messages in many Indian languages appeared on the post card.
Like stamp-collection, post card-collection is also a busy and successful hobby among collectors. This hobby is known as deltiology. In 1984, Susan Brown Nicholas of Illinois, USA, sold a rare postcard - one of the only five specimens of its kind in existence. It brought to her the equivalent of 1.75 lakh rupees.
