The Price on the Queen’s Head

The cost of sending a postcard in Britain was  relatively stable between 1956  to decimalisation in 1971.  In the examples below, between 1956 to 1968, a period of 12 years, the price increased by one penny. (The  going 1956 rate of two pence (2d.)  had first been introduced in 1940.  It was increased to 3d in 1965.)

The new 1971 decimal rate 0f sending a postcard doubled overnight, from 3d to the equivalent of 6d (2½p.)  Even allowing for the inflation of the 1970s, the cost of sending a postcard sky-rocketed.   By 1986 it was 12 new pence –  a touch under 2/6d, that is: a touch under 30 old pennies per postcard.  The feeling  at the time that the introduction of decimalisation in 1971 led to some financial shenanigans in  public and private sector pricing was not always wide of the mark.

 

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And, if you still send a postcard –  rather than a photo from your mobile – Royal Mail will charge you 97p, a touch under one pound, if you send it to Germany, or any other European country.  If, however, you send a postcard from Germany to the UK (at the time of writing, November 2014), Deutsche Post will charge you 75 cents.  At present conversion rates, that is 59p.

“We are having a wonderful time, going sight-seeing this afternoon.  Food is marvellous.  Everybody is very friendly and helpful.  Going to the night clubs to-night, the bottom right hand photo is the street of 1000 night clubs!!  Quite a place……”  (Reeperbahn, in St.Pauli)

 

At it’s peak, in the Edwardian period, the picture postcard was the 2014 equivalent of the mobile phone text and photo.  As some Royal Mail delivery services may soon be history (there have  been noises about  their pulling out of some rural deliveries), and as stands of picture postcards spin forlornly in the occasional gust of wind on British seaside fronts (yellowing each summer),  and costing up to 50% less than the stamp you put on it, Le Patron will post occasional pieces inspired by the picture postcard.

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