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L.A. County Coroner (California)
Technically, these are “Post-Cal” and not postcards, though they can be mailed. Here’s the story: you do a treasure hunt all through Los Angeles until you find the L.A. County Coroner, a complex including a massive old building that has a quirky and quite engaging gift shop in one corner of the ground floor. They sell these, which are peel-off stickers but which have a place for a stamp as any postcard would. The message area is pre-printed. You won’t find them at the neighborhood drugstore. Unused, and just waiting for you. Grades: 1
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James A. Garfield Memorial, Cleveland (Ohio)
James A. Garfield was the 20th president, assassinated in 1881 after only six months in office. Many citations refer to this structure as one of the most elaborate presidential mausoleums. The card itself is unused and has glitter running horizontally in six places, Grade: 3
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Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum, Terra-Cotta Worriers (sic) and Horses (Xi’an, PR China) (folio)
Twelve unused cards in a packet (as you open it, the phrase greets you: “Xi’an of China, Memory lives your heant”), captioned in Chinese and English. Clear views of this impressive discovery. Grade: 1
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Parsee Tower of Silence, Bombay
Unused, stylized real-photo card of some years back. If you do not already know the background and history to this and similar structures, you might consider checking. Grade: 1
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Toraja, Tongkonan funeral, pig slaughter (Indonesia)
Unused 4-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ Cakra card. Grade: 1
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Tana Toraja, Lemo Village, traditional hillside graves (Indonesia)
Unused 4-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ Cakra card CK-001. Grade: 1
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Paris, Catacombs, Tombeau de Gilbert (France)
Unused, contemporary card. There’s a symbolic reason for this price. Grade: 1
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Paris, Catacombs, Ossements du Cimetiere (France)
Unused, contemporary card, Cimetiere des Innocents. There’s a symbolic reason for this price. Grade: 1
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Paris, Catacombs, Fontaine de la Samaritaine
Unused, contemporary card. There’s a symbolic reason for this price. Grade: 1
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Paris, Catacombs, Lampe Sepulcrale (panorama)
Unused, contemporary card measuring 4″ x 8-1/4″. There’s a symbolic reason for this price. Grade: 1
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Hamilton Parish Church (Bermuda)
Unused, heavily handled old card with creasing and tearing. Grade: 4
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Paris, Tomb of the unknow (sic) Soldier
Unused Editions Paul Luciani card, in blue and white. Grade: 2
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Delhi, tombs of Sultan Nizam and Jahan Aran (India)
Unused B&W card No. 26 from H.A. Mirza & Sons (Delhi). Grade: 2
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Quebec, Ste. Anne de Beaupre, cemetery’s gate
Unused card NGNL, unattributed. Grade: 3
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Moulay-Idriss, Saint Idriss II tomb (Morocco)
Unused Flandrin (Casablanca) card 14. Grade: 1
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Catherine Tekakwitha grave (Kentucky)
The caption on this old, unused Albertype Co. card is really over the top and doesn’t help us understand the story very well: Catherine Tekakwitha, “America’s Little Indian Flower, Lily of the Mohawks, lived but twenty-four years a life of suffering love.” Grade: 2
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Kagoshima, The graves of Nansyu Saigo and etc. (sic) (Japan)
Unused card. Grade: 2
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Grave of British Soldiers, Concord (Massachusetts, USA)
Unused card. Grade: 2
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Shake’s Grave Totems (Haida Indians) (Wrangell, Alaska)
Mailed in 1940 with stamp and fully legible postmark, we repeat the caption for your information: “These Totems mark the grave of the uncle of the present chief. Titles always pass to the sister’s son.” Now you know. Grade: 3
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President Harding’s tomb (Marion, Ohio)
Unused but very heavily handled C.T. American Art card A-96347. Grade: 4
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Greetings from Khartoum, Mahdi’s Tomb (Sudan)
G.N. Morhig card, though if there is a reference number printed on the card, we can’t find it. This is about as exotic as postcards get, and though it was not postally used, and has the written message on the reverse, it is a superb, early “Greetings from” card and worth this price. Grade: 4
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Tombs at Khartoum (Sudan)
Exceptionally, this is neither a Morhig nor a Sudan Times postcard. It comes from Victoria Stationery & Book Stores, Khartoum. No reference number. Message written on the reverse. Grade: 4
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Kanchana Buri, Bridge and War Cemetery (Thailand)
Two unused cards from 2012 are available. Grades: 1
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Kanchana Buri, Don Rak War Cemetery (Thailand)
Unused card from 2012. Grade: 1
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Dublin, St. Michan’s Church, Bodies in Vaults (Ireland)
We went to the search engine to learn more about this church, and learned that it is particularly well-known for these crypts. So this very old B&W card matches the atmosphere, apparently. Unused, aged, Grade: 1
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Grant’s Tomb, New York City
Unused Illustrated Post Card Co. card 145. Grade: 2
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Bonaventure Entrance, Savannah (Georgia, USA)
Old, unused card of the entrance to this cemetery. Grade: 1
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St.-Jacobskerk, Grafkapel P.P. Rubens, Antwerp (Belgium)
If you like lots of stamps on your postcards, this one should appeal to you. Four very large and different stamps, postmark, blue A Prior label affixed. Great specimen mailed in 2012, in excellent condition. Grade: 1
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Saratoga Battlefield, American Cemetery, Bemis Heights (New York)
Unused C.T. Art-Colortone linen card 7A-H1193. Grade: 1
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Riga, Brāļu kapu vārti (Latvia)
This real photo card was mailed in 1933 with stamp and full, clear postmark. Grade: 2
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Chicago, Monument and Tomb of Stephen Douglas (USA)
Postcard collecting was popular when this card was mailed in 1908, with stamp and postmark, as the message attests. Grade: 3
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Boot Hill Cemetery, Ogallala (Nebraska, USA)
Unused card, mildly aging but clean. Grade: 1
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Boothill Graveyard, Tombstone (Arizona, USA)
Unused Smith-Southwestern card 7640 with a line through the bar code where the stamp would go. Grade: 2
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Homel, Chapel-tomb of Paskevichs family (Belarus)
Mailed from Minsk with stamp and full postmark. Grade: 1
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The Washington Tomb at Mount Vernon (Virginia, USA)
Unused “local” card, beginning to age and mottle on the reverse. Grade: 3
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Mormon Pioneer Cemetery, Omaha (Nebraska)
Actually, Winter Quarters Cemetery, a location where “More than 340 deaths occurred … from the fall of 1846 to the spring of 1848” but this unused card doesn’t tell us exactly why. Grade: 2
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Cairo – Tombs of the Mamelukes
Unused B&W card, green on the back and with the same caption but in French. Grade: 2
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Protestant Cemetery (Macau)
Unused card of this World Cultural Heritage site. Grade: 1
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Tana Toraja, Sulawesi – Tau Tau ancestral figurines (Indonesia)
Unused and somewhat compelling card. Grade: 1
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Tana Toraja, Sulawesi – Tau Tau ancestral figurines from a distance (Indonesia)
Unused card. Grade: 1