Postcrossing Blog

Twelve years ago today, Postcrossing was opened to the whole world… so today it’s our own Postcrossingversary! 🎉 Hurray!

Connecting the world might not be an easy job, but we firmly believe it is an evermore important one. We’re thankful to every single one of our members who believe in this idea too, looking beyond borders, religions and politics to simply connect with other human beings out there, one postcard at a time.

And to make this special day even more special, we have great news! Indonesia Post is releasing 3 new Postcrossing-themed stamps today! Here they are, in all their colourful glory:

Pretty cool, right? Meetups are being organised around Indonesia to celebrate the event this weekend — if you’re the area, head over to the forum for more information. We look forward to seeing these pretty stamps on postcards from Indonesia!

And now, it’s time to enjoy this milestone — do join us in this celebration, send a postcard (or 12!) and have a slice of cake! 🎂 Happy birthday Postcrossingversary, Postcrossing!

February 24th will go down in (Postcrossing) history as the day the Romanian Postcrossing-themed stamp was launched! George (aka Nazareanu) and Mihnea (aka MihneaR) were there to participate in the events and wrote back to tell us all about it!

The stamp launch day started at the Romfilatelia Headquarters (the National Stamp Issuing Authority) with the stamp concept/identity presentation by Luminita Toncu, who is the head of the department. For this event, postcrossers came from all over Romania: Bucharest, Ploiesti, Suceava, Gura Humorului, Oradea, Zalau, Constanta, Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, and even 3 from outside Romania, from Czech Republic, Italy and USA.

The day continued with a conference of 2 presentations and 5 speeches organised by members of the Romanian Postcrossing Community for the people present in the audience.

The first presentation was about “The Postcrossing Diversity: Connecting people”, presented by George Năzăreanu (Nazareanu), which marked the various stories and emotions transmitted through postcards, the benefits of Postcrossing meetings, recreative & cultural events possible, and the importance of sharing the Postcrossing hobby at local schools & kindergartens for the children’s education by exposing them to “hands on” learning activities. The presentation ended with the message from Paulo Magalhães & Ana Campos for the Romanian Postcrossing Community for this once in a lifetime event.


After the presentation, five speakers took the stand (in order from left to right): Ovidiu Bucse (aka Ovidius), talking about “Postcrossing meetings in the world“, Andra Ardeleanu (aka AndraArd) who examined “The need of stamps diversity”, Eugen Mihai (aka aeumihai2003) discussing “Photography and postcards”, Michelle Ordeltová (aka Michellie) taking about “Building bridges across nations” and Cornel Jipa (aka corneljipa), a member of the Romanian Philatelic Federation since 1976, telling the story of “Romanian philately along time".

The second presentation was “Postcards: hobby & people” by Mihnea Raducu (MihneaR), sharing his experience with postcrossers meetups during his travelling inside and outside Romania.

Making History: The signing of the official special panel, which will be displayed on the “Hall of Fame” Stamp corridor at the Romfilatelia Headquarters.

Otilia and Noar (noarvladimir), the future Postcrossing generation exploring and discovering the visual wonders found on postcards.

Group photo with both the Postcrossing community and the philatelic team that made the stamp possible.

Over the next couple of days, the community gathered to properly celebrate this milestone… and of course signed lots of postcards with the new Postcrossing stamp!

This is a stack of stamped meeting postcards, which got filled up with signatures, Postcard IDs and addresses ready to be sent out within minutes! This is how much we awaited this memorable event. In total, over 1400 postcards were signed and sent over into the world.

At the end of this lovely day, with the heart filled with joy and the mind filled with unique memories, the Romanian Postcrossing Community can only say: Happy Postcrossing everybody!

Thank you Marius Smadu (msmadu) for the nice photos, George (aka Nazareanu) and Mihnea (aka MihneaR) for the report and to everyone who participated — looks like a very nice event! 😊 Hurray!

It’s only February yet, and we’re already reporting the second Postcrossing-themed stamp being issued this year… 2017 is off to a fantastic start!   

So ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to announce that in just 2 days, Romania will join the ranks of the countries which have issued a Postcrossing stamp. They may have less than 1500 postcrossers there, but their unwavering enthusiasm for the project convinced their post office this was a good idea — and we’re glad for their fierceness! We’re especially thankful to Mihnea (aka MihneaR) whose persistence and commitment to this idea in every step of the way were crucial in bringing this new stamp to life.

Have a look at their new stamp, which will be published on February 24th:

We bet it’ll look pretty cool on all their postcards! 😀

The new stamp sheet (and accompanying FDC) will be available from Friday on Romfilatelia's shops in Bucharest, Bacau, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Timisoara or online, on the WOPA website.

To celebrate the stamp issue, Romanian postcrossers are organising a couple of meetups in Bucharest this Friday and Saturday, and planning to send lots of postcards with the new stamp. Do join them, if you’re in the area!

And if you’re not in Romania, keep an eye on your mailbox — your next postcards from there might feature their shiny new stamp!

Happy New Year, everyone!

We’re starting the year with excellent news: Belpochta (the Postal Operator of Belarus) has launched a second Postcrossing-themed stamp on January 3rd — almost exactly three years after their previous stamp launched. Here’s what it looks like:

The design, by Marina Vitkovskaya, mixes traditional Belarusian elements (like the folk embroidery and the blue cornflower) with a Happy Postcrossing message.

Victor (aka victorzenin), Evgenij (aka the_52cond), Maria (aka Ukurka) and Marina (aka Nelie) sent us some photos of the meetup that took place yesterday, to commemorate the stamp launch in Minsk:

Looks like everyone was busy writing dozens of postcards and maxicards… hopefully they’ll soon brighten many mailboxes around the world! 😊

Hurray! July 14th is Postcrossing’s anniversary and we couldn’t be happier! Eleven years of connecting the world, one postcard at a time… feels great!

Postcrossing is not just a platform or a bit of code on a server. What makes this project great is definitely its community… which means YOU! Every single one of you, that perhaps looked at this idea with suspicion in the beginning but decided to jump in anyway and give it a go. All of you who ensure the world’s mailboxes are filled with smiles and kind words. Those of you who help each other in the forum, who organize and attend meetups, who send us tips and ideas, who send thousands of postcards to lovely ladies on their birthday. We’re thankful for your trust, support and enthusiasm in the past 11 years. Long live Postcrossing!

A couple of postal operators neatly lined up their Postcrossing-themed stamp launches to mark the occasion, so today, Poland and Guernsey see new stamps come to life!

Polish Post drew inspiration on the theme of traveling through postcards, and re-imagined a “postcrossers’ suitcase”… which naturally has a mailbox on the side!

To celebrate the stamp launch, Polish Post is holding several events in Wrocław. Among the activities, there will be a free tour of the Post and Telecommunication Museum in Wrocław, a competition with some prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy the new stamp and even receive a special cancellation mark.

Today is also the day two new stamps from Guernsey Post make their debut! International postage is being updated, and the stamps (for Europe and Rest of the World) reflect this change. Guernsey Post’s new stamps were drawn by Sue Hamon and aim to share the island’s rich flora and fauna with the world through the postcards they’ll be traveling in.

Guernsey Post is also launching a set of related products along with the stamp, on their online shop, including first day covers and maxicards.

So, happy birthday Postcrossing! Now it’s time to blow those candles and grab a piece of cake while we write some postcards — do join us! :)

PS – Speaking of stamps, the German Postcrossing community has been trying for years to convince their Finance Ministry that a Postcrossing-themed stamp would be a good idea… with little success so far. As Germany is the country with most postcards sent in the project, we think they deserve it. So if you have an extra card, give them a hand in turning this dream into reality!