 right|thumb|austria-hungary postal card of 1875, polish version, sent from sniatyn (ukraine). right|thumb|united states postal card of 1881. right|thumb|bavarian postal card of 1892. right|thumb|united kingdom postal card of 1895. right|thumb|a message reply card, still attached, sent from cuba to germany, 1894. postal cards are postal stationery with an imprinted stamp or indicium signifying the prepayment of postage. they are sold by postal authorities. on january 26, 1869, dr. emanuel herrmann of austria described the advantages of a correspondenz karte.Ãsterreich 1850-1918, spezialkatalog und handbuch, von dr. ulrich ferchenbauer, wien 1981, p.503 by october 1, 1869 the world's first postal card was produced by austria-hungary.van gelder, peter j.; the collectors' guide to postal stationery, a squirrel publication (1997) isbn 0-947604-07-3 they caught on quickly. by the end of 1870, great britain, finland, switzerland and wÃ¼rttemberg joined the countries issuing postal cards. in the united states, they were first produced in 1873.bussey, lewis e., ed.; united states postal card catalog, united postal stationery society, 2010, 248 pages. a complete and authoritative look at u.s. postal cards. some of the forms taken by postal cards include the regular single card which may be commemorative or definitive, attached message-reply cards, airmail postal cards, and official postal cards used for official government business with a "penalty for private use". to the post office, there were positive advantages to postal cards as opposed to correspondence in envelopes. the cards were lighter and less bulky than letters and they were all the same size. the result was that they occupied less than one third of the space required by the same number of letters. to the public there were also advantages. they were simple and cheap making them an instant success. britain had a half-penny rate to begin with. the u.s. "penny postcard" rate lasted through 1951. presumably for the purpose of getting a prompt reply, a sender was given the opportunity to pay for postage both ways with an attached message-reply card, first introduced by germany in 1873. other european countries quickly followed suit. spain furnished message-reply cards to her colonies: cuba (1880), philippines (1889) and puerto rico (1898).littrell, robert, ed.; postal cards of spanish colonial cuba, philippines and puerto rico, upss, 2010; isbn 978-0-9800112-4-1 the u.s. issued them first in 1892. message-reply cards were attached tÃªte-bÃªche and likely to be perforated or rouletted to facilitate separation once in the hands of the recipient. the recipien
Philatelic_terminology Postal_stationery