Many Regular Readers Will Know I Am Philatelist,

a stamp collector,

but as with any subject there is so much I do not know about them, for instance I never knew that there was a secret language to the placement of stamps on the envelope, in the early days of the postal service, pre 1840 the receiver had to pay the cost of the delivery, it was a novelty for many households to receive a post, but it was expensive, so a ‘secret stamp code’ actually emerged back in the ‘receiver pays’ mail era as a way to dodge exorbitant postal fees. The sender could encode a simple answer into the placement of their stamp on the envelope – perhaps ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘come at once’. The receiver could then examine the envelope, extract the message and then refuse to pay the delivery fee for the unopened letter, but that changed in 1840 when the sender paid for the penny post, a new ruse was needed, 

at that time the cheapest way to send a message was a postcard, when one arrived the whole household saw the postcard and the message on it, but the placement of the stamp and a simple message, which looked innocent had a meaning for the recipient, the postcard above appears perfectly innocent to anyone scanning it. Will is asking Laura if “Bob is having some dainty dishes“. A little oblique – perhaps an ‘in-joke’ – but nothing improper, in reality, the stamp tells another story. Will was telling Laura: “I’m longing to see you“,

a new postal language was developing!

in fact the introduction page in one ‘how-to’ booklet claimed to be able to encode 270,000 message variations, the era of the postcards was born! I had no idea that stamps placed on letters/postcards could have a hidden meaning, as a consequence, some guides prescribe that a 90º right-turned stamp means a hopeful “Reply at once!“, while other guides would interpret the same stamp as “I wish for your friendship, but no more“, which I guess explains why so many stamps on old letters seem to be so randomly placed, for the full fascinating article have a look here.