Old Postcards - why only 5 words?

[mrs_nordling]

Sorry if the category is wrong, couldn't find out where else to post! I picked up some postcards this morning at the car boot, and on some old ones, where the stamp would be attached, it says "1d stamp if with only sender's name and address and 5 words conventional greeting". What I want to know is WHY ONLY 5 WORDS?! There must be a reason for this, but I can't think of one....

[boxtops]

I believe it was because only a short message could be sent on a postcard - e.g. Home at 6, otherwise you would be charged more because it was considered to be a letter.

[New Judge]

Because the Post Office provided a concessionary rate for postcards with five words or fewer. Cards containing more than five words were charged at the letter rate.

[Buenchico]

Further to the above answers . . .
the lower rate of postage also applied to greetings cards (e.g. birthday cards and Christmas cards). However it was important to leave the envelope unsealed (i.e. with the flap simply tucked inside the envelope) otherwise the full letter rate of postage would be applied.

The 1d price for sending a postcard lasted between 3rd June 1918 and 30th April 1940 (with the exception of between 13th June 1921 and 23rd May 1922, when it 1½d). The last date on which there was a lower rate for postcards (3d instead of 4d for a letter) was on 15th September 1968. The following day the new system of First and Second Class mail was introduced, with letters and postcards both being charged at 5d (1st) or 4d (2nd). I remember, a few months later, how odd it seemed to be actually sealing the envelopes on Christmas cards for the first time ;-)

Chris

[ChuckFickens]

If you could use a postcard to send a message saying "Home at 6" the postal service must have been pretty quick back then!

[Buenchico]

Chuck obviously doesn't read (or watch) Sherlock Holmes. He would often get a postal reply to mail he'd sent earlier the same day (and still be in time to post his response, possibly expecting a second reply to arrive before the day was out).

From 'Murray's Handbook to London As It Is', 1879:
"London is divided into 8 postal districts, in which the number of deliveries varies from 12 to 6 daily, between 7.30 a.m. and 7.45 p.m."

Chris

[Mosaic]

Postcards were the i-phone of their day. The postal service was fantastically efficient - as the only artery of distant communication.
Plus, updated editions newspapers were published every couple of hours and keen sports fans often bought several a day to keep up with the latest results. I think this endd with the wider use of radio.

[ABerrant]

To be fair, by the 1930s postal users were encouraged to post before noon to realise the expectation of next day first delivery anywhere within England and Wales. After noon, in all likelihood, you would only achieve the second delivery!

[mrs_nordling]

Many thanks for your most informative answers, it makes sense really, doesn't it, to limit the number of words or nobody would pay more to send a letter otherwise!

[jno]

Chuck, yes, in Victorian times you could communicate almost as quickly and frequently by letter as you can now by email. Progress, eh wot?

[factor-fiction]

Amazing isn't it that the postal service was so fast in those days despite the absence of post codes and sorting equipment, although I suppose the post office wasn't bogged down by so much junk mail so volumes were probably much lower. Twenty years ago I used to get my post before I set off for work at 7.30-8.00. Now we're lucky to get it before 2 o'clock

[mike11111]

Before 1968 any unsealed letter, not just greetings cards, attracted a lower rate of postage. From 1957 to 1965 the rate was 3d sealed and 2d unsealed. Those were the days!

[jno]

factor30, yes, when they abolished the second delivery a few years back it was soon pointed out that they'd actually abolished the *first* delivery.

[mike11111]

i agree jno. I like to claim that we still get a second post - we just don't get a first one!

[heathfield]

I have a letter posted by my grandfather in London's Euston Road at 10:30 a.m. to tell my grandmother, living in Muswell Hill, that he would be arriving at Muswell Hill station on the 3:00 p.m. train that that afternoon. Apparently she received it by the noon delivery.

[flicrat]

And I have three postcards betwen my grandmother and her sister arranging to meet for a drive that afternoon!There must have been collections and deliveries every couple of hours!( Early 1900s)

[andrewstables]

Inland post cards generally cost 1/2d to send up to June 1918 when the cost was doubled to 1d. However, as a concession, provided no more than five words of conventional greeting were used, they could still be sent for 1/2d (being classified as "printed matter). The printed matter rate was itself increased to 1d in June 1921, at which point the normal post card rate was further increased to one and a half pence. However, following protests the normal post card rate was put back to 1d in May 1922 at which point it remained until 1940. Therefore it was only between June 1918 and May 1922 that there was any point in limiting the greeting to five words and this helps to more precisely date many post cards of that era.