The postcard is one of the latest arrivals among the “collectables”. The urge to collect postage stamps has a longer history, because adhesives arrived so much earlier. The postal historian looks back even futher in time. But the postcard was not born until 1 October, 1869, and the picture postcard did not appear until the 1870s.

There was a world-wide craze for collecting postcards which began at the turn of the century and persisted until 1918. Then it came to an abrupt end, partly because of the doubling of postage on cards (from ½d to 1d for inland mail) and partly because the more general use of the telephone superseded the postcard as a medium for brief messages.

In recent years there has been a revival of interest in collecting picture postcards. However the emphasis has moved away from contemporary issues (though many enthusiasts do concentrate on the “moderns”).