Some years ago, I became interested in the beauty and historical significance of postcards. The postcard craze started with the Austrian World's Fair of 1870. It should be noted that photography was well established, so mailing a photo was nothing new. However, an enterprising publisher put the photograph of Vienna on a card. Thousands were mailed as letters using the 1-cent letter rate. Overnight, people who had never been to Vienna, Berlin, London, New York or a thousand other places, wanted a picture. These were places that they only had ever heard about, and certainly very few would ever have the opportunity to visit. A cheap postcard fulfilled that dream.

The new hobby took off. People started not only collecting cards of cities, but ships, lighthouses, amusement sites, monuments, scenes of small towns and people. Around 1903-1906, most countries allowed the postcard to have a divided back. This allowed a message as well as the address on the card. The United States Postal Service noted that when this happened, there were over 6 million cards a day being mailed in the US alone. The British Empire, which included a quarter of the world's population, was a major player in this new, cheap and fun hobby. The so-called craze, subsided by about 1911. It was briefly revised with the advent of WWI, as millions of people were shifted around the globe.

As I collected cards (which now number 30K), I noticed WWI cards would have a stamp, usually a 2-cent Admiral coil, affixed in Canada to mail from personnel on active service. Now why would the Post Office go to the trouble of putting on a stamp in Canada? The idea of free franking for personnel on active service was a perk that the Canadian government deemed essential. The postcard shows the person mailing it was on active service. It was mailed from Vendome Loire Et Cher province France on March 2 1917. A 2-cent Admiral coil was affixed, no doubt, going through censor first on March 26 in Montreal, and sent to be delivered in Winnipeg some time later.

Now the murky workings of government come into play. Ever since wars have been fought, the victors claimed prizes of war. This could be simple mementos to large chunks of real estate. Someone had to pay for the cost of the war. The Allies were determined that once they were victorious, Germany would pay reparations. So, they fixed a stamp to a card and kept track of this expense. We all saw the hyperinflation that was caused in Germany because of this policy of the Allies. Governments are loathe to stop the stream of cash a tax generates. So to this day a portion of every stamp mailed in Canada has a small amount remitted to the Treasury to pay for the War.

Ken Kristjanson
October 2017