Figure 1.--This is a Leonar postcard dated 1921, although this is a little indestinct. The postcard did not have a stamp box. There is, however, an enscription in German. The card was mailed to the United States. Click on the image to see the back.

Not all post cards had stamp boxes. We are not sure about the pre-stamp box era. We have found postcards without stamp boxes during the stamp box era (1904-30s). There were not very many American post cards that were done without stamp boxes. One of the few we have found was done with empty space lettering like CYKO cards. They may have been the same company, but there are is no other lettering on the card. Just POST CARD written over the top of the back in wide open script. These were divided back cards. One source gives the dates as 1907-14. We can not yet confirm that. We note note one card dated to about 1908. Another card we have found is undated, but definited taken in the 1910s. We hope to refine our dating as we expand our postcard archive. We think the same is true for British postcards, but do not yet have many dated images. We do see quite a number of British photo-back post cards without stamp boxes from the 1900s theough the 1930s. A good example is a family portrait from the late-1920s. We have not yet, however, found many dated examples so we can sketch out the time range of each company. Most of the non stamp box postcards are European. One we have found is Leonar, a German company. The example we have found is dated 1932. It had a one-third divided back. We will add any other dated post cards without stamp boxes we find here. We believe that the stamp boxes were especially common in America, but for some unknown reason less so in Germany. We do not know why many German companies did not use stamp boxes to identify their product. In fact many German postcards were virtully blank on the back except for a vertical divider and horizontal lines for the address.

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Created: 5:38 PM 8/31/2004
Last updated: 1:16 AM 12/7/2023