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Type of site | Project website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Postcrossing Lda |
Created by | Paulo Magalhães |
URL | postcrossing |
Registration | Yes |
Launched | July 14, 2005 [1] |
Postcrossing is an online project for people to exchange postcards with other project members globally. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!" [2] The name Postcrossing is a union of the words postcard and crossing, and its origin "is loosely based on the Bookcrossing site". [3]
Members can get details of other randomly selected members to send a postcard to, then receive cards from other random members. Official exchanges between the two members occur only once, but unofficial ongoing swaps between members are possible. As of January 2025 [update] , Postcrossing had over 805,000 members in 211 countries and territories, [4] and over 80 million registered postcards had been exchanged. [5]
To be eligible to receive a postcard, a member must first send one. When a member requests to send a postcard they are given the address of another member and a unique postcard ID (e.g. US-787). They send a postcard to that address with the postcard ID displayed. Costs of postcards and postage fees are the responsibility of the user sending the card. When the recipient registers that postcard ID, the sender becomes eligible to receive postcards. [6] Each member can write profile text visible to the sender which can contain personal information and postcard preferences. The Postcrossing system allows two members to exchange postcards only once. By default, members will exchange postcards with countries other than their own but they can decide to exchange postcards with other users in their own country. Users can express a preference not to send to repeated countries but it does not guarantee that there will be no repetitions.
Initially each member can have up to five postcards traveling at a time. Once five cards are in transit they need to wait for a card to be registered as received before they can request another address. The limit increases as users build experience exchanging cards, up to a maximum limit of 100. [7] A small proportion of postcards do not get registered as received because they get lost en route, have an unreadable ID, or are received by members who are no longer active. The system attempts to adjust for these issues to reduce the difference between the number of sent and received postcards of each member.[ citation needed ]
Membership is free and anyone with an address can create an account. The greatest numbers of members, known as postcrossers, are in Russia, Taiwan, and the United States. [8] Globally, most postcrossers reside in North America, Europe, and East Asia. As of January 2025 [update] , about 40 % of the combined total of postcards were sent from Germany, the United States, and Russia. [5]
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^a Table last updated January 18, 2025
Postcrossing was created by Paulo Magalhães. It was initially a hobby based on his enjoyment of receiving postcards: [9] "The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you would probably never have heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises–and who wouldn't like that?" [10] He started the website on July 14, 2005, hosted at his home on an old computer in a clothes closet. The project rapidly grew internationally, initially via word-of-mouth then promoted by media attention.
The millionth Postcrossing postcard was received on April 11, 2008. [11] [12] The project's popularity continued to accelerate, reaching two million in February 2009. [13] The five millionth postcard was received in August 2010, [14] shortly after the project's fifth anniversary, [15] and the 10 millionth postcard was registered in January 2012. [16] As of 2025 [update] , approximately one million postcards are registered every two or three months, passing the milestone of 80 million postcards received on January 7, 2025. [17]
Million | Date | Time (UTC) | From | To | Postcard |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 [11] [12] | April 11, 2008 | 3:03 pm | ![]() | ![]() | TR-8482 [18] |
2 [13] | February 26, 2009 | 6:34 am | ![]() | ![]() | DE-292437 [19] |
3 [20] | September 24, 2009 | 4:09 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FI-637138 [21] |
4 [22] | March 28, 2010 | 10:14 am | ![]() | ![]() | CZ-48446 [23] |
5 [14] | August 24, 2010 | 7:14 pm | ![]() | ![]() | IT-98823 [24] |
6 [25] | December 30, 2010 | 12:03 pm | ![]() | ![]() | ES-97547 [26] |
7 [27] | April 19, 2011 | 6:59 pm | ![]() | ![]() | CN-357628 [28] |
8 [29] | August 2, 2011 | 11:28 am | ![]() | ![]() | FI-1149781 [30] |
9 [31] [32] | November 3, 2011 | 5:13 am | ![]() | ![]() | CN-450151 [33] |
10 [16] | January 27, 2012 | 4:56 pm | ![]() | ![]() | JP-232027 [34] |
11 [35] [36] | April 3, 2012 | 8:04 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-1615550 [37] |
12 [38] | June 12, 2012 | 6:28 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-1710034 [39] |
13 [40] | August 22, 2012 | 5:08 am | ![]() | ![]() | HK-45392 [41] |
14 [42] [43] | October 25, 2012 | 8:52 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-1464473 [44] |
15 [45] | December 31, 2012 | 1:46 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-1800737 [46] |
16 [47] [48] | March 4, 2013 | 7:21 am | ![]() | ![]() | UA-487482 [49] |
17 [50] | May 1, 2013 | 12:20 am | ![]() | ![]() | RU-1658153 [51] |
18 [52] | July 3, 2013 | 6:57 am | ![]() | ![]() | FI-1791281 [53] |
19 [54] | September 2, 2013 | 9:56 am | ![]() | ![]() | UA-737378 [55] |
20 [56] | October 29, 2013 | 5:49 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-2449004 [57] |
21 [58] | December 23, 2013 | 10:54 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-2232945 [59] |
22 [60] | February 17, 2014 | 3:03 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-2339217 [61] |
23 [25] [62] | April 10, 2014 | 10:47 am | ![]() | ![]() | DE-3043747 [63] |
24 [64] | June 8, 2014 | 12:40 pm | ![]() | ![]() | LV-150063 [65] |
25 [66] | August 10, 2014 | 11:02 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-2612179 [67] |
26 [68] [69] | October 10, 2014 | 3:36 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-3009516 [70] |
27 [71] | December 7, 2014 | 2:05 am | ![]() | ![]() | JP-612910 [72] |
28 [73] | February 5, 2015 | 7:13 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-2863567 [74] |
29 [75] [76] | April 2, 2015 | 4:04 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-2930266 [77] |
30 [78] | June 2, 2015 | 12:27 am | ![]() | ![]() | DE-4221494 [79] |
31 [80] | August 5, 2015 | 11:39 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-3078076 [81] |
32 [82] | October 6, 2015 | 6:40 pm | ![]() | ![]() | RO-109708 [83] |
33 [84] | December 5, 2015 | 11:37 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-3242698 [85] |
34 [86] | February 4, 2016 | 7:41 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FI-2619857 [87] |
35 [88] | March 31, 2016 | 11:49 pm | ![]() | ![]() | HK-407034 [89] |
36 [90] | May 31, 2016 | 6:34 pm | ![]() | ![]() | CN-1943122 [91] |
37 [92] | August 2, 2016 | 7:08 pm | ![]() | ![]() | RU-4866496 [93] |
38 [94] | October 4, 2016 | 4:09 pm | ![]() | ![]() | NL-3579375 [95] |
39 [96] | December 7, 2016 | 7:56 am | ![]() | ![]() | TW-2105862 [97] |
40 [98] | February 13, 2017 | 6:39 am | ![]() | ![]() | TW-2118751 [99] |
41 [100] | April 17, 2017 | 10:46 am | ![]() | ![]() | CZ-1159412 [101] |
42 [102] | June 28, 2017 | 6:15 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-4715663 [103] |
43 [104] | September 2, 2017 | 2:23 pm | ![]() | ![]() | CN-2281671 [105] |
44 [106] [107] | November 7, 2017 | 10:46 pm | ![]() | ![]() | RU-6019041 [108] |
45 [109] [110] | January 16, 2018 | 6:26 pm | ![]() | ![]() | AU-590448 [111] |
46 [112] [113] | March 20, 2018 | 6:00 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-6951547 [114] |
47 [115] [116] | May 28, 2018 | 8:03 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-5301280 [117] |
48 [118] [119] | August 7, 2018 | 3:47 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-5456394 [120] |
49 [121] | October 16, 2018 | 1:32 am | ![]() | ![]() | RU-6804601 [122] |
50 [123] | December 27, 2018 | 7:13 pm | ![]() | ![]() | IL-60207 [124] |
51 [125] | March 4, 2019 | 10:56 am | ![]() | ![]() | SI-174914 [126] |
52 [127] | May 13, 2019 | 5:47 am | ![]() | ![]() | RU-7247664 [128] |
53 [129] | July 25, 2019 | 5:25 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-6129158 [130] |
54 [131] | October 7, 2019 | 5:27 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FR-1208264 [132] |
55 [133] | December 18, 2019 | 4:56 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-8811634 [134] |
56 [135] | February 28, 2020 | 11:49 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-4570321 [136] |
57 [137] | June 5, 2020 | 7:15 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-9251821 [138] |
58 [139] | August 28, 2020 | 9:17 am | ![]() | ![]() | CZ-1723155 [140] |
59 [141] | November 10, 2020 | 8:51 pm | ![]() | ![]() | TW-3064528 [142] |
60 [143] | January 24, 2021 | 10:17 am | ![]() | ![]() | BY-2711325 [144] |
61 [145] | April 1, 2021 | 12:57 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-4843833 [146] |
62 [147] [148] | June 8, 2021 | 12:01 am | ![]() | ![]() | CN-3120100 [149] |
63 [150] | August 18, 2021 | 07:12 am | ![]() | ![]() | US-7750150 [151] |
64 [152] | October 26, 2021 | 1:07 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FI-4039073 [153] |
65 [154] | January 4, 2022 | 8:39 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FR-1467922 [155] |
66 [156] | March 9, 2022 | 7:44 pm | ![]() | ![]() | FI-4130313 [157] |
67 [158] | May 25, 2022 | 1:11 pm | ![]() | ![]() | CN-3322046 [159] |
68 [160] | August 10, 2022 | 6:13 pm | ![]() | ![]() | SK-278899 [161] |
69 [162] | October 22, 2022 | 7:18 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-8785398 [163] |
70 [164] | January 4, 2023 | 11:36 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-9001590 |
71 [165] | March 14, 2023 | 12:32 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-12712886 |
72 [166] | May 28, 2023 | 1:36 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-13026949 |
73 [167] | August 12, 2023 | 7:35 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-13280232 |
74 [168] | October 25, 2023 | 7:35 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-9786292 |
75 [169] | January 8, 2024 | 3:13 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-13658011 |
76 [170] | March 18, 2024 | 8:32 pm | ![]() | ![]() | US-10179025 |
77 [171] | June 6, 2024 | 8:58 am | ![]() | ![]() | DE-14252655 |
78 [172] | August 16, 2024 | 12:46 pm | ![]() | ![]() | DE-14335070 |
79 [173] | October 27, 2024 | 8:52 pm | ![]() | ![]() | AU-960950 |
80 [17] | January 7, 2025 | 2:32 am | ![]() | ![]() | NL-5891077 |
The first Postcrossing-themed stamp was released by PostNL in 2011. Since then more than a dozen countries' postal services have followed suit and some released multiple Postcrossing-themed stamps. [174] [175] [176] The majority of the stamps have been launched in partnership with the Postcrossing community but some "unofficial" stamps displayed the Postcrossing trademark without approval of the Postcrossing organization.
Stamps officially backed by the Postcrossing community are posted on the Postcrossing blog: [174]
On October 1, 2019, Postcrossing organised global events to celebrate the postcard's 150th anniversary. Events included postcard exhibitions, special cancellations marks, postcard writing workshops and seminars, commemorative postcards and special stamp issues. [183] Postcrossing organised an exhibition at the Universal Postal Union's (UPU) headquarters in Bern, with postcards from across the world sharing messages about the importance of postcards. [184]
Following the success of these events, in 2020, Postcrossing launched World Postcard Day. [185] Commemorative postcards and special cancellation marks were issued to mark the day. [186] A commemorative postcard for the event was chosen in a competition for design and art students. Special events included online postcard exhibitions, postcard writing workshops and online meetings. [186] A lesson plan was created in eight languages to help teacher introduce postcards to young children in schools. Further events have been held annually since 2020. [187]
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal systems have generally been established as a government monopoly, with a fee on the article prepaid. Proof of payment is usually in the form of an adhesive postage stamp, but a postage meter is also used for bulk mailing.
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare.
The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the publicly-funded Australian youth radio station Triple J. Members of the public are invited to vote for their favourite Australian and alternative music of the year in an online poll conducted two weeks prior to the new year.
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of US$11.2 billion and was ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, such as Halloween, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feelings.
The Department of Posts, d/b/a India Post, is an Indian public sector postal system statutory body headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is an organisation under the Ministry of Communications. Generally known as the Post Office, it is the most widely distributed postal system in the world, and India is the country that has the largest number of post offices in the world. It is involved in delivering mail (post), remitting money by money orders, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance coverage under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc.
The system for mail delivery in the United States has developed with the nation. Rates were based on the distance between sender and receiver in the nation's early years. In the middle of the 19th century, rates stabilized at one price regardless of distance. Rates were relatively unchanged until 1968 when the price was increased every few years by a small amount. Comparing the increases with a price index, the cost of a first-class stamp has been steady. The seal of the Post Office Department showed a man on a running horse, even as railroads and, later, motorized trucks and airplanes moved mail. In 1971, the Post Office became the United States Postal Service, with rates set by the Postal Regulatory Commission, with some oversight by Congress. Air mail became standard in 1975. In the 21st century, prices were segmented to match the sorting machinery used; non-standard letters required slightly higher postage.
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Deltiology is the study and collection of postcards. The word originated in 1945 from the collaboration of Professor Rendell Rhoades (1914-1976) of Ohio and colleagues at Ohio State University. A biographical sketch of Dr. Rhoades's life by his wife Nancy was provided to the Canadian Friends (Quaker) Historical Association in 1994. Dr. Rhoades had responded to a contest by editor Bob Hendricks in Post Card Collectors Magazine to create a more scholarly name for the hobby of postcard collecting. 'Philocartist' was a term used in the early 1900s, possibly coined by the noted early philatelist Fred Melville in his 1903 publication The A.B.C. of Stamp Collecting.
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Non-denominated postage is a postage stamp intended to meet a certain postage rate, but printed without the denomination, the price for that rate. They may retain full validity for the intended rate, regardless of later rate changes, or they may retain validity only for the original purchase price. In many English-speaking countries, it is called non-value indicator or non-value indicated (NVI) postage. They are used in many countries and reduce the cost of printing large issues of low-value make up stamps.
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old, except in the case of a handful of nations, where the age requirement is 14 years. As of December 2023, Facebook claimed almost 3.07 billion monthly active users worldwide. As of November 2024, Facebook ranked as the third-most-visited website in the world, with 23% of its traffic coming from the United States. It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Maximaphily is a branch of philately involving the study and creation of maximum cards. It is one of eleven classifications of philately recognised by the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) and therefore has its own FIP Commission.
The first postage stamps of Bhutan were issued in 1962, the same year that the first motorable road was opened. Before that there was a mail delivery system in place for official mail using mail runners, and between 1955 and 1962 revenue stamps were accepted as payment for internal mail. With the opening up of Bhutan in the early 1960s, a formal postal system was introduced.
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Facebook and Meta Platforms have been criticized for their management of various content on posts, photos and entire groups and profiles. This includes but is not limited to allowing violent content, including content related to war crimes, and not limiting the spread of fake news and COVID-19 misinformation on their platform, as well as allowing incitement of violence against multiple groups.
Today I had some time to dig this up and, if I didn't made any mistake, this is the full list:
Not many people noticed, but yesterday we crossed the 8 million postcards milestone! 🙂
A few hours ago ago we've reached 9 million postcards! Well done, all of you! 😃
Did anyone notice? We hit 11 million delivered postcards! 🙂
This was the charmed postcard number 12 million:
Yay! We hit 13 million received postcards some hours ago - congratulations everyone! 🙂 Here's the lucky card:
Yay! We've reached 16 million registered postcards! That's a lot of happy mailboxes around the world! Well done everyone! 🙂
We just reached 19 million postcards! The lucky postcard was from Ukraine to Germany! Happy Postcrossing everyone! 🙂
Hurraaaaay! We just reached 28 million exchanged postcards! Congratulations everyone! 🙂 Check out postcard number #28,000,000:
Yesterday we reached 29! MILLION! POSTCARDS! Hurray! Only 1 million left for the big 30! 🙂
Another couple of months, another million postcards registered — hurray! 😃 Here's postcard number #31,000,000, sent from Netherlands to the Philippines:
Did you notice we reached 33 million received postcards yesterday? 🙂 Hurray! Here's the lucky Dutch card, registered in Japan! 🙂
We reached 34 million postcards yesterday, with this pretty card which traveled from Finland to Germany!
Woohoo! We juuuust hit 36 million postcards! That's a lot of postcards!
Hurray! We just reached 37 million exchanged postcards!! That's a loooot of smiles all over the world Here's the lucky card number 37,000,000:
Woohoo! We've just reached 38 million postcards! 🎉 Postcard #38,000,000 is lovely, and traveled from the Netherlands to the USA in 10 days. 🙂
Hurray! We reached 39 million postcards earlier today! 🎉 Congratulations everyone! Here's lucky postcard #39,000,000 which traveled from Taiwan to the USA:
Woohoo! The week is off to a great start — postcard number 41 million just got registered! 🎉 Here it is:
We've just reached 42 MILLION registered postcards! 🎉🎉🎉 Hurraaaaaaay! 🎉 Here's lucky postcard 42,000,000:
Look at that! We just crossed the 46,000,000 registered postcards on the project! 🎉 Hurraaaaaay!
Hurray! 🎉 We reached 47 million postcards earlier today! 🎉 Good job, everyone!
Did you hear the news? Yesterday we hit the milestone of 48! 🎉 MILLION! 🎉 POSTCARDS! 🎉 Hurray and congratulations everyone!
Curious to see which card was number 49 million? Here it is!
Lucky postcard number 52 million has just been registered — hurray! 🎉 It's super cute and it traveled over 3300km... within the same country.
We've just passed the 55 million registered postcards! Hurray! 🎉 The lucky card features two very famous sisters, and traveled from Germany to Belgium in just three days. ❄️
We crossed the 56 million postcards mark earlier today! 🎉 Here's the lucky card, featuring a royal family: [URL] Congratulations everyone, what an amazing number!