In 2005, the Portuguese Paulo Magalhäes (a lover of sending and receiving postcards) developed a website that provides participants with random addresses to send a postcard to other postcrossers anywhere in the world. The card recipient registers the card delivery on the website, after which the system makes the sender’s address available to others who also want to send cards. This way, a postcrosser only receives cards if they send them themselves. Those who send many cards also receive many more. The appeal of postcrossing connections fosters friendships worldwide. Since 2005, more than 800,000 postal enthusiasts from 210 countries have registered on the website.
The Postcrossing 20th anniversary stamp sheet produced this year by The Netherlands consists of six identical stamps: three in a normal orientation and three inverted. An earlier postcrossing issue from The Netherlands in 2016 depicted typical Dutch scenes.
In 2017 Indonesia produced this beautifully-illustrated limited edition postcrossing stamp sheet featuring famous landmarks from around the world and the three values below.
Guernsey issued three superbly designed postcrossing stamps in 2021 featuring a goat, a crab and a puffin about to place postcards in a letter box. They are intended separately for post within the United Kingdom, Europe and the Rest of the World.
These humorous stamps were produced by Switzerland in 2017. It’s amazing how popular postcrossing has become and how it has spawned friendships worldwide since its inception. Below are examples of postcrossing stamps from Belarus, Poland and Ukraine. Check PostBeeld’s Freestampcatalogue for more items.
