At the end of this month, on July 31, the U.S. Postal Service is going to release the new Fanciful Flowers Stamped Card.

One of the fun things about writing this blog is the discovery of new things – whether they be stamp related, fountain pens, typewriters, stationery, new technology, … all in the pursuit of helping to encourage us with “Balancing new technology communication with old-style corresponding.” 

In putting together today’s blog post it caused me to research what is exactly a “Stamped Card”.

Attribution: image shown upper left of the Fanciful Flowers Stamped Card First Day of Issue July 31, 2015 by the U.S. Postal Service. “The Fanciful Flowers stamped card, featuring a stylized illustration of flowers and a bee, offers a touch of summer to tidings sent to friends and family… Fanciful Flowers is being issued as a Forever® stamped card.”

There was this 2014 article from the U.S. Postal Service I came across: “Stamped Cards and Postcards: Stamped cards, called postal cards prior to 1999, refer to mailing cards issued by the Postal Service with postage stamps imprinted on them. Postcards refer to privately printed and sold cards that require a stamp for mailing. In popular usage, the terms postal card and postcard (also spelled post card) were often used interchangeably…”  (On Twitter @usps, @USPSstamps) 

It was still a little unclear to me so I sent an email yesterday with this question to my stamp club friend with the Wilmington Philatelic Society.  “Question for you please – is a ‘stamped card’ the same as a post card with the stamp imprinted on it?  Thanks! … referenced the 2014 article … It LOOKS like to me that this will be a postcard with the stamp already on it.   Have I got that right?   Just wanted to make sure.   Thank you in advance! ”

And then I found this July 9, 2015 article at the Linn’s Stamp website (On Twitter @LinnsStampNews)  – “The Fanciful Flowers postal card will be made available in three formats: as a single postal card, as a paid reply postal card (two cards joined together), and as a sheet of 40 single cards (for machine printing).”    My stamp club friend was then sent an update email from me with the Linn’s Stamp link as I was moving in closer to the answer.

I’m delighted with the answer that was sent to me:

“Good evening Helen,

You have already answered your own question.  A “stamped card” is sort of like a pre-stamped post card but not exactly. It is a question of semantics.

A post card (not capitalized) is a card used to mail a message without the use of an envelope. They can be homemade cards or commercially produced cards. Picture post cards sold in drug stores and tourist gift shops are examples. A post card is not issued by the U. S. Postal Service and the user must apply a stamp to pay the appropriate postal rate.

A Postal Card (should be capitalized because it is the name of a product but often is not capitalized) is a postage paid card issued by the Postal Service. The “stamp” is printed on the card. The old Post Office Department called these cards Postal Cards and it was illegal for private cards to be so called thus their name post card. The USPS is now calling Postal Cards Stamped Cards.

The terms Postal Card and post card are often used interchangeably but this is really incorrect. It is like calling a tissue a Kleenex.

I hope this helps even though you had already found the answers.”

And there was this follow-up email sent to me:    “Helen, Here is the link to the official USPS announcement of the Fanciful Flowers card.  It contains all the technical information about the card.  Scroll thru the rest of the pages and you will find the complete July 9, 2015 issue of the Postal Bulletin” – I liked this link better because of all the technical information rather than this one  focused on the design which I had started my quest.

Again, my sincere thank you to my stamp club friend with the Wilmington Philatelic Society who helped answer my questions yesterday, and is an email subscriber to this blog!

Today we discovered together about Stamped Cards – if you already knew the technical definition bravo!  Now the rest of us can join alongside you and we are more likely after reading about them to want to go get several of these beautiful Fanciful Flowers Stamped Cards at the end of this month!

Anchors Aweigh,  

Helen