Various stamps and marks on envelopes and cards

First UK Aerial Post, 1911


Merano, Italy, 1902

Dave's tips

People often ask what is meant by 'RP'.  RP means Real Photographic.  The difference between a Real Photographic postcard (RPPC) and a printed one (made up of dots), is easily seen under magnification - as I have illustrated below (New Brighton Lighthouse).  A small 10x magnifier (which folds up, and can be kept with you while visiting fairs, antique shops etc) can be bought from any good stamp accessories supplier or camera shop (a couple of examples of magnifiers are shown below).
A Real Photo postcard can either have a glossy or matt surface.

Real Photo, or 'RP'

Printed

Chromolithograph
Chromo-Litho cards are neither of the above but are high quality cards printed by a method that layers down solid colours, the design being first etched onto a limestone block, different stones (as many as 15!) were used for each colour.  Again, these can easily be distinguished under magnification, as seen at right.  These are mostly pre-WWI and printed in 'Old Germany', e.g. Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia etc.
For even greater magnification of a Chromo card see the da Vinci card above on this page.

Photogravure is a method whereby a photographic image is etched onto a copper plate and printed from that. Under magnification they appear as very fine dots (much finer than screen printed, shown above right). It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between photogravure & RP without a magnifier.

Chromo-Litho

The top one is called a 'lupe' and is available
from most camera shops, this one has the
added advantage that the plastic dome
captures light from all around.

The lower one is a folding lens, which can
be carried around easily in a pocket
- available from many sources including
stamp accessory suppliers.

10x magnification is sufficient for postcards.

Did you know?
Lighter fuel (highly refined petrol) removes finger prints and dirt from glossy RPs.
A soft pencil rubber usually removes postal ink from shiny postcard fronts.
'Clear Face Bags' - a much cheaper way of protecting postcards than PVC pockets
- from stamp accessory suppliers.  6" x 4" size are about £16.00 per 1000.
Fruit trays (free from supermarkets!) are made from very light, very strong, cardboard.  Ideal for mailing postcards.
I cut the bases into 6" x 4" pieces using a bandsaw.  Great for storing cards too as they can be stacked.
Stamps - a knowledge of issuing dates (along with postage rates)
helps identify date of posting if the postmark is unclear.

Can't find that postcard location?  Try these:

UK Gazetteer (opens in new window)
Google Maps World Gazetteer (opens in new window)
 

A couple of useful books
 

Catalogue of Picture Postcard Artists
Peter James
ISBN 0 9519972 1 1

Picture Postcards and their Publishers
Anthony Byatt
ISBN 0 9506212 0 X

Moiré Patterns produced by a scanner = yellow bands on your pictures

If you find YELLOW BANDS appear while scanning some printed postcards, this is due to a printing method that produces these 'Moiré Patterns' when they are scanned (also happens when scanning pictures from magazines).  To stop this happening try to find a 'Descreen' option in your scanner settings & scan with that activated - this will prevent the pattern appearing & also clear up other 'interference'.  If you do not have a Descreen facility try scanning at twice the dpi that you want, blur the picture slightly, reduce to size you want by resizing & then sharpen - experiment, the results will be good enough for showing your pictures on eBay &c.
You can find more technical information on this effect by using a search engine like Google & query = Moiré