Lloyd Italiano

The Lloyd Italiano Line was formed in 1904 to provide passenger service between Italy and North and South America.
I can't read Italian, but it looks like Alfonsina has just received a card from Carmelina Piccolo and was surprised that Carmelina had not received the long letter she had sent her...and then something about a ticket.

Star Spangled Banner

Over the years the American flag went through many transformations.  In fact, the first American flag used in 1775 had a pine tree on it!
The original Star-Spangled Banner had 15 stars, representing the 13 original colonies with the addition of Vermont and Kentucky. Somewhere along the line, perhaps in battle during the War of 1812, one of the stars from the flag went missing. That may be why this flag is depicted with 14 stars. However, it's still not accurate, because the stars are too chunky and there should have been five offset rows with three stars in each row. For that matter, it doesn't have the right number of stripes either; it should have had 15 instead of 13. It looks a little like the Guilford flag, which had 13 stars (but with eight points) and 13 stripes (but red and blue.) So, I'm baffled. If you have any ideas, let me know.

The Ultimate Postcard Bargain

Where do you go to buy postcards? You can buy them at antique stores, garage sales, auctions or online. If you're looking for something specific, online auctions and websites are probably your best bet. But, if your interests are broader and you love a variety of postcards, there's another great option; it's what I call the 20-cent bin. This is especially great if you're just starting to collect postcards and don't know exactly what you want.

Postcard clubs often have boxes where members can deposit their unwanted postcards. These postcards are then available for sale to other members and visitors, often for 10 or 20 cents each. The proceeds help to support the postcard club. I am always surprised at the treasures I find in these boxes. They may not be in mint condition, but they are treasures nonetheless.

Here are some of the cards I have rescued from the 20-cent boxes (the first one alone has given me at least $2 worth of laughs):

 

I am a member of two postcard clubs, the Webfooters, where I bought these fine cards for a total of 80 cents and the San Francisco Bay Area Post Card Club. Unfortunately, I don't live close enough to San Francisco to attend any of their meetings, but I like to support this club because they have a great newsletter and a fantastic website. Their reference links are amazing. Without their website, I never would have known that there are people who specifically collect corset postcards or that there is a Virtual Corkscrew Museum Postcard Gallery. I also noticed that one of the newer members in one of these clubs specifically collects postcards with accordions on them (there must be a law against that.)

Here are some other postcard clubs (in no particular order) that might interest you:

Pacific Northwest Postcard Club (Seattle, WA)

Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City

The Taconic Postcard Club (Yorktown Heights, NY)

Lehigh Valley Postcard Club (Bethlehem, PA)

Lancaster County Postcard Club (Lancaster, PA)

Rhode Island Postcard Club, North Providence, RI

Twin City Postcard Club (Minneapolis/St.Paul, MN)

Four Lakes Postcard Club (Madison, WI)

Heart of Ohio Postcard Club (Columbus, OH)

Wichita Postcard Club

Dallas Metroplex Postcard Club 

Capital of Texas Postcard Club (Austin, TX)

Tuscon Postcard Exchange Club

Tropical Postcard Club (Pompano Beach, FL)

Toronto Postcard Club

Vancouver Postcard Club

Norske Postkortsamlere (Oslo, Norway)

Queensland Card Collectors Society (Brisbane, Australia)