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Gjirokaster, Museum of National Liberation War (Albania)
This ever-so-slightly decrepit building, lovingly hosted by a sweet young lady who was a week away from emigrating, is former dictator Enver Hoxha’s birthplace. Think of it more as a house kept intact as a museum, though many of the items seem to be replicas. That doesn’t make it any less atmospheric, or spooky, and the construction alone is well worth the visit. This unused older Albturist card is Grade: 1
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Kruja, The Skanderbeg’s Museum
Unused Aeditions card 45. Grade: 1
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Shkodra, Museum House of Luigj Gurakuqi (Albania)
Luigj Gurakuqi was an Albanian writer and politician. He was an important figure of the Albanian National Awakening and was honoured with the People’s Hero of Albania medal. And here’s his house, on this unused but highly aged Arba card 140. Grade: 2
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Tirana, Museum of National History (Albania)
This 1983 card shows a general view of the hall of the National Renaissance. It has most of the 1984 postmark. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the stamp is gone and the card has been very heavily handled over the years. To be honest, if you just want a space-filling card from Albania’s Communist era, this would be it. Grade: 5
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London, Natural History Museum, Cast of Diplodocus
Unused card from the Museum. Grade: 1
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London, Natural History Museum, Front Entrance
Unused card from the Museum. Grade: 1
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Istanbul, Hagia Sophia (Turkey)
Unused Keskin card 34/1376. See this art as being at Hagia Sophia the museum, not as THE museum. Grade: 1
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National Mall and Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC)
Unused. Grade: 1
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Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania, USA)
Unused card of “the finest of American Art Museums”. Grade: 1
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Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum (England)
Unused, unnumbered Valentines Series postcard. Grade: 1
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Barnard Castle, multiple views – Bowes Museum (England)
Unused real-photo card 4-478 by Judges’ Ltd Hastings, with each of those four views identified: castle and bridge; market cross; market cross again; and Bowes Museum. Creased through lower right corner. Grade: 3-
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Jingguanlou (set of 8) (Hong Kong)
Unused set of eight Postage Prepaid Picture Card Series No. 21, with pre-printed postage and special “Hong Kong Museums Collection” cancellation dated 23rd March 2023. Our scan shows the front of one of the eight cards. In the original cello-wrap. Hongkong Post reports only 2000 sets were sold. Grade: 1
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Shanghai Confucian Temple (set of 12) (PR China)
Set of 12 unused cards, measuring 4-1/2″ x 6-3/4″. The scan here shows you the outer cardboard cover. Grade: 1
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Brunei Museum collection: Kiri
A “kiri” is a kettle-shaped brass water container, this one at the Brunei Museum. The postcard is not postally used, but has a message and address 0on the back, and two thumbtack holes. Grade: 5
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San Diego, USS Midway Museum (California)
Unused. Grade: 1
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Museum Statue (Hong Kong)
Maybe you will understand our dilemma. Maybe not. We will explain anyway. We have customers in China and we don’t want our website to be banned there. If we showed the cards in this series uncensored, we would run that risk. So we are asking you to “read between the lines,” so to speak, and imagine what might be here. If you really want to know, ask us and we can e-mail the full version. Each card in this series (which we are selling individually, and all are unused) has a sticker with a crowdfunding request on the reverse, placed at source so the stickers are not a defect. Grade: 1
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Museum Relics (Hong Kong)
See our entry #34400466. Grade: 1
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Museum blanket (Hong Kong)
See our entry 34400466. Grade: 1
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Museum banner (Hong Kong)
See our entry 34400466. Grade: 1
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Museum Concert (Hong Kong)
See our entry 34400466. Grade: 1
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Museum tanks (Hong Kong)
See our entry 34400466. Grade: 1
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Museum Candlelight (Hong Kong)
See our entry 34400466. Grade: 1
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Velistsikhe, Wine-Cellar Museum “Numisi” (Georgia)
Unused card, captioned in Georgian and English. Interestingly the reverse is a mirror image of a usual layout: stamp and address area are on the left, captions and message area on the right. Grade: 1
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Mallorca, Museo del Mar y La Lonja (Spain)
Older card, mailed with stamp and indistinct postmark. Grade: 2
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Hammer Museum (California)
From a series of ad cards collected in Los Angeles in 2017 … technically not postcards, we suppose, as they are fully printed on both sides and couldn’t be mailed the conventional way. But they are the right size and shape, and uniformly eye-catching. Grade: 1
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Ancient Chinese Paintings from the National Palace Museum: Immortal Blossoms of an Eternal Spring (II) (Maximum Cards) (set of six) (Taiwan)
Such a long title — and we have even abbreviated it — for a nice set of six maximum cards, of which our scan shows you four. Issued on 26 April 2017 by Chunghwa Post, and with a cardboard cover. If you’d like to see the other two cards, please ask us. Grade: 1
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Grasse. – La Maison de Fragonard (France)
In Grasse, and beyond, Fragonard is symbolic for perfume. Unused, clean old postcard. Grade: 1
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Tokyo, National Museum
Unused card from the 1950s. Grade: 1
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Surabaya, MONKASEL (Indonesia)
An unused card for many categories, reflecting Indonesians’ fondness for calling things and places by acronyms. Any search engine will tell you the odd story of MOnumen KApal SELam. Grade: 1
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Okinawa, Himeyuri-no-To (Japan)
Continuing a series of unused cards, captioned mostly in Japanese and Chinese, but with the key identification also in English (or we should say western letters). Apart from being the name of a film, Himeyuri-no-To is described online by one skeptical observer like this: “Himeyuri no Tō (literally, Tower of the Lilies) memorialises the Himeyuri students, a large corps of local students and their teachers drafted by the authorities to help in the war effort. For the most part, this meant serving as nurses to the wounded in make-shift field hospitals erected, if that is the apt word, in caves. Perhaps it is something about the primitivism of the use of caves by a modern war machine that makes the whole scenario feel so futile, so doomed and absurd”. Okinawan people, and Japanese persons generally, may well see this differently. Grade: 1
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Isola d’Elba, The Napoleonic Villa of the Mulini (Italy)
Unused, aging card. There’s a large and bright red circular “chop” on the reverse, indicating that the card is officially from the museum. Grade: 2
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Chicago, Museum of Science & Industry (Illinois, USA)
Unused, somewhat aging Curteichcolor Art-Creation card CK-196 (5C-K438), distinguished mostly by its odd caption: “The Museum … at night illuminated by firing 1,000 Sylvania flash bulbs simultaneously”. Really? Imagine doing the same thing with 1,000 iPhones. Grade: 1
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Hong Kong Museums Collection: Bamboo Carvings (set of 6) – box
This is a set of six cards, in a very sturdy cardboard box that almost feels like wood. Our scan shows the front of the box; see 34400483B for sample cards. It’s Hongkong Post’s “Postage Prepaid Picture Card Series No. 57,” and each card has pre-printed, coloured, global postage and a special first-day-of-issue (14 November 2017) postmark. Our other scan shows you the examples of how one front and one reverse look, but of course all six cards are different within a similar theme. Grade: 1
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Kennebunkport, Seashore Trolley Museum (Maine, USA)
Unused Dexter Press card 85859-B, with a 1971 date lightly pencilled into the postage area. Lots of detail in the Maine postcard’s caption. Grade: 2
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Oklahoma City, Buffalo Bill statue (USA)
A card for many categories, and slowly but surely we are building up a supply of Buffalo Bill postcards. This statue is at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in Oklahoma City. Unused Dexter Press card 53716-D-S-OC716, with album marks on two reverse corners. Grade: 2
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The Wharton Esherick Museum, Spiral Chair (Paoli, Pennsylvania, USA)
Not postally used, with a message taking up most of the reverse. Grade: 5
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The American Museum, Bath (England)
Mailed in 2018 with stamp and postmark. Grade: 1
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Dresden, Zwinger (Germany)
All scenes are identified (in German) in the caption on the back of the card. It was mailed in 2018 with two se-tenant stamps and full postmark. Grade: 1
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Altes Rathaus, Leipzig (Germany)
Mailed in 2018 with two se-tenant stamps and postmark. Grade: 1