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Soyambunath Stupa (Monkey Temple) – Greetings from Nepal
Mailed in 1992, with stamp and postmark still there along with very significant foxing (staining) on both sides. Grade: 4
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Isa Town Mosque (Bahrain)
Everything’s great about this card except that it was mailed in 1978 from England. Stamp and partial postmark. Grade: 4
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Al-Deir, Petra (Jordan)
Mailed in 1992 with two different stamps and very faint postmark. Grade: 1
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Ise-Shima National Park, Great Shrine (Nai-gu) (Japan)
Unused old B&W postcard. Bilingual captions, Japanese/English. Grade: 1
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The West Front, Chester Cathedral (England)
Unused, somewhat aging card whose minor abrasions on the reverse do not interfere with the caption. Grade: 2
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York Minster (England)
Unused J. Salmon card 1-09-07-05/613c with album marks on the reverse. Grade: 4
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The City Walls and Minster, York (England)
Unused, aging J. Arthur Dixon card YK.1339. Very minor abrasions on reverse. Grade: 2
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Liberty Square, Town Hall, Archdiocese Cathedral (Minsk, Belarus)
Mailed from Minsk in 2020, with a large “M” stamp and postmark. The card has a sizable horizontal strip attached to the back, deliberately covering some printed text, and while it looks as if this strip was on the card when it was first sold, we can’t be certain. That’s the only reason the grade is so low. Grade: 4
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St. Mary’s Church, New Haven (Connecticut, USA)
A very old card, not postally used but with a name written into the address area. Grade: 3
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Maximum Cards of Taiwan Relics Postage Stamps (Issue of 2020) (set of 4) (Taiwan)
First, despite what’s written on the cardboard cover for this set, these are not maximum cards. They have no stamps and no postmarks. But they are unused, and show Gongziliao Fort, the Railway Division of Taiwan Governor General’s Bureau of Transportation, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, and Tainan District Court Building. Chunghwa Post is strange this way. We once went into one of its philatelic branches and saw a similar set of “maximum” cards without stamps. When we pointed this out to the clerk, she said — in effect — oh yes, that’s how we do it, and took out some stamps and a postmark chop so she could do it on the spot. (But not all Taiwanese maximum cards are managed this way.) Grade: 1
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Munich – 1972 Olympics, Cathedral, St. Mary’s Square, City Hall (Germany)
Mailed from Munich in 1972 with stamp and clear postmark. An excellent postcard representative of this troubled Olympics. Grade: 1
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Christ Episcopal Church, Dover (Delaware, USA)
Unused Tichnor Quality Views card 66652. Grade: 1
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Chapelle de la Clusaz, Bellevaux (Switzerland)
Mailed in 2020, this B&W card has its stamp and clear postmark. Grade: 1
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Prambanan Temple (Indonesia)
Mailed in 2020 with two stamps, postmark, and the post office’s barcode sticker. Grade: 1
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Moldavian Monasteries (Romania)
Unused card, with bilingual Romanian/English captions. Grade: 1
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Transylvania, villages with fortified churches (Romania)
On this unused card, in the tiniest and faintest of print, the villages are identified: Biertani, Saschiz, and (twice) Viscri. Grade: 1
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Postcards from Romania by Eugen Mihai (set of 10)
The ten glossy, unused cards in this set produced by Romanian military photographer Eugen Mihai are all shown on its paper cover. Each postcard has a complete and informative bilingual (English/Romanian) caption and represents one or another of a variety of scenes around the country — including a fortress, IAR 99 Standard military jet trainers, TR-85 M1 battle tank, Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament, Castelui Peles (Sinaia), the training ship “Mircea”, night view from Bucharest’s North Railway Station, Horezu Monastery, The Gate of the Kiss, and Hunyadi Castle. This great set came to us via our friend Tatiana, and — given the special circumstances of the cards’ production — if you read this and want to order directly from Mr. Mihai, we’ll tell you how to do that. Or, of course, this set from us. Grade: 1
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Columbia Bible College (South Carolina, USA)
Curteich-Chicago linen card 3C-H592, mailed in 1952 with stamp and postmark and a long, effusive message. As for the school, it’s now Columbia International University, about which an (edited) Wikipedia entry says: “CIU began in 1923 when it was founded as Columbia Bible School. The original purpose was to provide a two-year course of study in biblical studies for local mill workers. By 1927, the decision was made to convert the school into a college and begin offering bachelor’s degrees in Bible. The college was relocated in 1960 to its present facility on Monticello Road. During this period, the institution also changed its name to Columbia Bible College and Seminary. The name was changed yet again in 1994 to Columbia International University.” (We don’t do this for every school!) Grade: 1
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Ciofliceni, Snagov – Mănăstirea Carmelitană (Romania)
Mailed in 2021, this 4″ x 8-1/4″ card has three stamps, part or all of three postmarks, three little stickers on the reverse, and a QR Code that tells you everything you could ever want to know. Grade: 3
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Fatima, Chapel of the Apparitions, Holm-Oak and Basilica (Portugal)
Older unused card, some age foxing but otherwise clean. Serrated edges. Grade: 2
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Manastirea Caraiman, Busteni (Romania)
Mailed in 2021 with three stamps (one huge), blue bilingual Prioritar label, and two postmarks. Grade: 1
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Boston, Christ Church (Old North) (Massachusetts, USA)
More or less all you need to know about Paul Revere’s role in America’s Revolutionary War on both sides of this unused United Art Co. card 34085. There is a minor stain at the lower left front tip. Grade: 2
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San Gabriel Mission (California)
Unused, old, Kashower Co. card 1092, with a caption struggling to find anything new to say. Grade: 1
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San Gabriel Mission, The Steps (California)
Unused, old, Kashower card 1073. It was either produced in this vivid orange hue or it has become this way with age. Grade: 3
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Wee Kirk of the Heather, Glendale (California)
Now part of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, and dedicated in 1929, this church (often called Wee Kirk o’ the Heather) was inspired by another in Scotland. The unused card, aging and faded, describes “modern brides married here,” while we just wonder why someone wants to get married in a cemetery. Grade: 1
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San Antonio, Mission San Francisco de la Espada (Texas, USA)
Established in 1731. This unmailed Mike Roberts card C4983 has initials written into the postage area. Grade: 3
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Salt Lake City, Temple Square (Utah, USA)
Unused Mike Roberts card C743, from early 1960s or before, describing the “spired ‘Mormon’ Temple which required forty years of pioneer labor to build, and the domed Tabernacle”. They were offering free guided tours. Still true? Grade: 1
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Salt Lake City, Brigham Young Monument (Utah, USA)
Unused Mike Roberts card C13336, describing Brigham Young as “a leading figure in the forming of the West”. Grade: 1
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Salt Lake City, Mormon Tabernacle (Utah, USA)
In this unused and very old postcard we have two “…est” examples in the reverse caption: “one of the largest structures for religious worship in the World,” and “one of the finest pipe organs in existence”. Not being certain of the current status, we’ll just advise you to notice the significant remnant of tape along the card’s left edge. Note too that these older cards didn’t worry about putting “Mormon” in quotation marks. Grade: 3
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The Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City (Utah, USA)
Unused, ancient E.C. Kropp postcard 16613, with a crease in the far upper right corner. Grade: 2
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Salt Lake City, Mormon Temple (Utah, USA)
What distinguishes this unused Mike Roberts/Wesco Color Card C-20 is not so much the subject or even the (good) condition, but a small wartime logo in the lower left reverse, part of the card, showing warplanes and the legend “Keep em Flying” … at least we think that’s what it says, and it helps date the card as somewhere between 1942 and 1945. Grade: 1
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Jamestown, church and graveyard (Virginia, USA)
The caption on this unused card 1A2341 published by The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, in Richmond, packs a lot of information about this scene into a small space. Grade: 1
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The Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago (Illinois, USA)
Unused Curteich-Chicago card 7B-H382 (or 392, it’s blurry). Grade: 1
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Boston, Memorial Church at Harvard University (USA)
“… In Grateful Memory of the Harvard Men who died in the World War”, to which they refer to World War I. Unused Mike Roberts card C16029 (BM 195). Grade: 1
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St. Louis Cathedral, mosaic detail (Missouri, USA)
Unused Dexter Press postcard 37542-C, with a florid caption and significant aging. Grade: 2
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The New Cathedral of St. Louis (Missouri, USA)
An unused, aging, Dexter Press card 37545-C, one of our “…est” cards, whose caption claims the cathedral has the world’s largest collection of mosaics, adorning “65,000 square-feet of walls and domes in the foremost example of Byzantine architecture in the Western Hemisphere”. Construction started in 1907 and finished in 1965, according to that same caption — which helps date the card. Long after this card was printed, Wikipedia reported that “currently, the world’s largest mosaic museum is the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep (Turkey), which holds mosaics covering an area of 2,462 square meters.” Time and tide wait for no postcard. Grade: 2
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Erin, Holy Hill (Wisconsin, USA)
Here’s an unused L.L. Cook card 18860, dated 1956, that manages two “…est” claims in the short caption: “U.S. most favorite place of Pilgrimage,” and “Highest located church in the State of Wisconsin”. Grade: 1
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin Avenue (USA)
An unused L.L. Cook card (3DK-907) (116Z), beginning to age on the back but clearly showing the Science Building of Marquette University and Gesu Church. Grade: 1
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Ste-Anne de Beaupre (PQ), The Basilica (Canada)
Very old, unmarked postcard. Grade: 1