Is it OK to write part of your message in the address space on a postcard?

[AY1975]

I have often written part of my message to the addressee in the address space on a postcard, and as far as I know most of the cards that I've sent over the years have arrived without any problem whenever I've done this no matter which country I sent them from and to. I have also often received postcards with the message spilling over into the address space.

After all, if there's empty space why not use it as long as the address is still clear and legible?

But I wonder if it is officially allowed. Opinion seems to vary on this, and I believe that the rules about where you may write on a postcard vary from country to country. For example I seem to recall that until fairly recently postcards sold in Italy had a line near the bottom marked "Do not write below this line". Not sure if that's still the case.

I presume you will only usually get away with writing in the address space on postcards sent within the UK or if it's allowed in both the country of origin and the destination country, as every international item of mail is presumably processed by the mail systems of both countries.

 

[najaB]

But I wonder if it is officially allowed. Opinion seems to vary on this, and I believe that the rules about where you may write on a postcard vary from country to country.

Officially it's not allowed:

The right-hand half at least of the front shall be reserved for the address of the addressee, for prepayment and for service instructions or labels. The sender may make use of the back and of the left-hand half of the front

From the UPU Convention Manual: https://www.upu.int/UPU/media/upu/f...mes/actInThreeVolumesManualOfConventionEn.pdf

 

[westv]

I didn't realise people still sent postcards!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The "do not write below this line" is to help the automated sorting machinery deal with the card quickly. The machinery is programmed to assume the lowest line on anything is the postcode and it will try to read it as such.

Writing below the line will simply result in the card having to be sorted manually, that's all.

 

[GusB]

The "do not write below this line" is to help the automated sorting machinery deal with the card quickly. The machinery is programmed to assume the lowest line on anything is the postcode and it will try to read it as such.

Writing below the line will simply result in the card having to be sorted manually, that's all.

It's just as well that we have loads of postal staff whose collective local knowledge ensures that things get to where they need to be.

My gran had the most annoying habit of sending postcards to My House, My Street, My Village, "nr Lossiemouth", when in fact the town of Lossiemouth actually had/s its own separate postcode (IV31); my postcode is an Elgin one (IV30).

 

[Calthrop]

It's just as well that we have loads of postal staff whose collective local knowledge ensures that things get to where they need to be.

My gran had the most annoying habit of sending postcards to My House, My Street, My Village, "nr Lossiemouth", when in fact the town of Lossiemouth actually had/s its own separate postcode (IV31); my postcode is an Elgin one (IV30).

Your gran has my sympathy -- I strongly get the impression that many people who grew up before the universal introduction of postcodes in Britain (1968 or '69 if I recall correctly) never properly got the hang of their use -- seemingly it was thus in your gran's case -- or, some refused point-blank; and if they're still around and in the "snail-mailing" business, still do; to use the damned things. It would indeed appear that, as you imply, the Royal Mail do their best to get post correctly delivered -- even in such instances where they might technically have the right to decline to handle, thus wrongly / incompletely addressed material.

I didn't realise people still sent postcards!

I still take pleasure in sending postcards from places visited on holidays (through financial constraints, British Isles only nowadays); and with one regular correspondent of mine (who abominates computers), that correspondence is conducted via Royal Mail only -- I often use postcards therein. Re matters as above: I, born 1948, have always hated postcodes. I reluctantly try my best to use them correctly -- but I find them extremely hard to remember, and the looking-up is an annoyance.

 

[Mojo]

I didn't realise people still sent postcards!

Every time I go on holiday? And given by the fact that almost every tourist shop sells them I’d imagine I’m not the only one.

 

[ChrisC]

I didn't realise people still sent postcards!

I don’t send many these days but when I go on holiday I still send them to a few elderly people who don’t do texts. They are not as easy to find as they once were. The more expensive National Trust type and other larger high quality ones are relatively easy to find in more upmarket tourist areas. The cheap seaside postcards are harder to find and those that are available seem very dated. Last week I was on holiday walking in the Lincolnshire Wolds and one day went into Mablethorpe and looked for postcards. I could only find one shop which sold a few very dated cards. The high street and sea front was full of tacky gift shops and discount markets but none sold postcards. Years ago there would have been racks of cards outside every one of these shops.

 

[AY1975]

Officially it's not allowed:

From the UPU Convention Manual: https://www.upu.int/UPU/media/upu/f...mes/actInThreeVolumesManualOfConventionEn.pdf

It would appear that in practice most posties in the UK tend to turn a blind eye to it, though, especially as Royal Mail charges the same for a postcard as for a standard letter, at least for UK domestic mail, whereas I believe that some other countries have a cheaper rate for postcards. Where that is the case, I suppose they might charge the recipient the difference between the price for a postcard and a standard letter (plus the admin fee for unpaid or underpaid items).

I presume every postal service in the world is signed up to the UPU, though.

 

[Springs Branch]

Can you still buy those classic saucy postcards at the seaside - or have they now been "cancelled" and consigned to history?

You know the type - featuring red-nosed drunks, buxom ladies, eager young couples with "Just Married" plastered on their suitcase etc. Ooh-er Matron! The name Bamforth & Co springs to mind.

[EDIT] Wiki seems to suggest the original Bamforth & Co Ltd has gone, but the rights to re-print and sell the postcards has been sold on. Maybe more to niche "enthusiasts" nowadays, rather than mainstream items you would buy on the prom to post to Great Aunt Edith. And the firm was originally based in Holmfirth, of all places.

 

[najaB]

Where that is the case, I suppose they might charge the recipient the difference between the price for a postcard and a standard letter (plus the admin fee for unpaid or underpaid items).

I believe that would be the correct way to deal with it, yes.

I presume every postal service in the world is signed up to the UPU, though.

Pretty much, yes. Certainly any that want to freely interchange mail internationally will be. There's a list on page XI of the document linked previously.

 

[Calthrop]

I don’t send many these days but when I go on holiday I still send them to a few elderly people who don’t do texts. They are not as easy to find as they once were. The more expensive National Trust type and other larger high quality ones are relatively easy to find in more upmarket tourist areas. The cheap seaside postcards are harder to find and those that are available seem very dated. Last week I was on holiday walking in the Lincolnshire Wolds and one day went into Mablethorpe and looked for postcards. I could only find one shop which sold a few very dated cards. The high street and sea front was full of tacky gift shops and discount markets but none sold postcards. Years ago there would have been racks of cards outside every one of these shops.

I find "bog-standard" "local view" type postcards still abundant, and relatively inexpensive, in many places -- especially if those places are pretty-ish and at all on the tourist trail. I live in Birmingham -- recently, in quest of something for correspondence with my computer-averse friend as mentioned upthread, which would be a bit different: I took a trip to Bridgnorth. W.H. Smiths there, had an abundance and variety of such cards featuring the town, and also on a more general Shropshire theme -- I stocked up "but good".

Can you still buy those classic saucy postcards at the seaside - or have they now been "cancelled" and consigned to history?

You know the type - featuring red-nosed drunks, buxom ladies, eager young couples with "Just Married" plastered on their suitcase etc. Ooh-er Matron! The name Bamforth & Co springs to mind.

[EDIT] Wiki seems to suggest the original Bamforth & Co Ltd has gone, but the rights to re-print and sell the postcards has been sold on. Maybe more to niche "enthusiasts" nowadays, rather than mainstream items you would buy on the prom to post to Great Aunt Edith. And the firm was originally based in Holmfirth, of all places.

One place where "saucy seaside" cards can still be got: is at the Donald McGill museum in Ryde, Isle of Wight -- McGill having been the acknowledged all-time master of this particular art "niche": he turned out thousands of these things over his long career, approx. 1910 -- 60 (getting occasionally into hot water with especially-puritanical local authorities). Many hundreds of examples of his output are on show in the museum; and you can buy there, modern facsimiles in standard postcard form, of a selection of same.

 

[Devonian]

They are not as easy to find as they once were. The more expensive National Trust type and other larger high quality ones are relatively easy to find in more upmarket tourist areas. The cheap seaside postcards are harder to find and those that are available seem very dated.

Salmon postcards supplied a huge amount of this country's postcards, but ceased trading in 2017, selling off a lot of stock at a discount in the process. Those stocks may well be running out by now, so postcards are coming from more expensive specialist or smaller local/regional suppliers, or not at all. Postcards are a fairly specialist print product (the front is highly glossy, the back uncoated so you can write on it, so they usuallly use a unique type of cardboard) and the cost of production has shot up over the last couple of years. The resulting higher retail prices combined with the cost of stamps are making postcards a difficult trade with falling demand, but it is still viable in busy tourist areas.

The designs of postcards are seldom updated: the picture-worthy sights in most places don't change that much, so (as long as the photographer has avoided things like people in distinctive clothing) you can reprint old designs for as long as there is a demand.

I can't put a text on my fridge or mantlepiece, so I still like to receive postcards - and therefore make sure that I send them too!

 

[Sm5]

OT but I once sent a postcard to a friend who’s address i did not know..
(university friend / student accomodation at the time).

simply put on the address was…

The house opposite the lotus shoe factory,
on the corner, with the broken A reg Metro outside the door
Stafford
ST16
UK


They got it.

Dont look for it, the shoe factory has gone, as has the Metro and the university, no google maps, iphones or even mobile phones in those days.

 

[Calthrop]

Obviously at a loose end (and indulging in Christmas cheer) -- however -- re postcards "beating the odds by getting there". Heard this long ago, from a couple of steam enthusiasts and self-declared wits-and-wags, in connection with a steam-questing trip of theirs in Indonesia. An associate of theirs at that time, worked for British Rail at one of the big London termini. The guy had a fairly (not hugely) unusual surname, which was maybe helpful in this exploit. At all events: the comedy duo wrote and posted from Indonesia, a postcard to this chap, and addressed it just to -- actual person's and station's names changed here; but the essential address which they put on the card was

Bloggs

Euston

England

Royal Mail ultimately delivered it to the addressee.

 

[Gloster]

In theory house name or number plus postcode should be enough. I had a letter from France once that arrived with only my common family name, house number and street, and postcode. Neither my village nor the post town were included.

Somebody I knew once sent a letter from Sweden to his mother in north Lincolnshire. He made the mistake of writing the return address on the back with each line below the previous one, like the address on the front. The letter finally reached her via Swindon: presumably the machine read the address on the back instead of the front and interpreted the last line as Sweden.