Building a Themed Postcard Collection Around British Coastlines

Why British coastlines work so well as a theme

Few subjects offer the postcard collector such a generous span as the seaside. Britain's coastline gave the early postcard trade its richest material: piers and promenades, bathing machines and bathing huts, lidos and bandstands, harbours packed with luggers, steep streets of boarding houses, donkey rides and deckchair attendants. A themed collection built around the coast is broad enough never to run dry, yet narrow enough that you can genuinely get to know it. That combination is rare, and it is why so many collectors start with a single resort and end up with a cabinet full of them.

The other attraction is depth. A card of a pier is easy to find; a card of that same pier in 1906, with a readable message about the crossing from the mainland, is a different proposition altogether. Once you begin chasing the details, the coast becomes a social history of British holidays, told in miniature.

Choose a county, a resort, or a single feature

The most common mistake is to collect "the seaside" in general. It sounds romantic and quickly becomes unmanageable. Instead, pick a boundary you can defend.

• A county — Cornwall, Norfolk, Sussex, Fife — lets you follow styles and publishers across a region.
• A single resort — one town, every street and every decade — gives you the best chance of a genuinely comprehensive collection.
• A single feature — piers, lighthouses, bathing machines, cliff railways, lifeboat stations — is ideal if you enjoy the hunt more than the hoard.

A narrow theme also sharpens your eye for value. General coastal views survive in their thousands and are usually inexpensive. A complete run of one resort's High Street and Esplanade, by contrast, may take years and is far more satisfying to display.

Learn the publishers before you buy

Postcards were produced by three broad kinds of publisher, and knowing the difference will save you money. The great national series issued views by the million, and their quality is often excellent but their scarcity low. Local stationers, newsagents and photographers issued cards of their own town in modest numbers, and these are frequently the ones collectors prize. Railway and steamer companies produced cards of their routes and resorts, and these carry their own charm.

Learn to read a back as carefully as a front. Publisher numbering, back designs, the wording in the stamp box and the layout of the address lines all help you place a card in time. Buy a few cheap duplicates deliberately and study them alongside one another; the differences will teach you more in an afternoon than any guide.

What to look for in the hand

Condition drives everything in this hobby. A scarce card in poor order is worth less than a common card in lovely order, and much less than a scarce card that has been looked after.

• Clean corners — no rounding, no bruising, no pin holes, no creases and no album damage to the reverse.
• Readable messages — a legible, dated message adds context, and sometimes a great deal of charm. "Weather grand, lodgings clean, pier closed for repairs" tells you more than any caption.
• Undivided backs where relevant — British cards with a single undivided message space date from before the change in postal regulations in 1902, and they suit a coastline theme beautifully.
• Clear postmarks and stamps — a crisp postmark dates and places the card, and is a pleasure in itself.
• Original state — avoid trimmed edges, rebacked cards and hand-coloured additions made later by a previous owner.

Watch for foxing, fading and the silvery bloom that affects real photographic cards. Writing over the image is common and acceptable if light; heavy ink across the pier is not.

Dating and identifying what you have

Start with the postmark, then work backwards. The style of the back, the presence of a divided or undivided address side, the stamp box shape, the publisher's imprint and the caption typeface will narrow a card to a decade in most cases. Photographic cards often carry a negative number, which collectors use to sequence a photographer's work.

Keep a notebook, physical or digital, with a line for each card: resort, feature, publisher, date, condition and what you paid. Within a year it will be your most useful reference, and it will stop you buying the same view three times.

Storing, cataloguing and enjoying the hunt

Use acid-free sleeves and boxes, keep everything out of direct sunlight and away from damp, and never store cards in a loft or garage. Old albums are often the enemy: gummed corners, acidic pages and tight pockets cause the very damage you are trying to avoid. If a card arrives in a poor album, rescue it carefully and rehouse it.

Buy in lots where you can — fair boxes, house clearance bundles, charity shop shoe boxes — and accept that most of them will be unwanted. The pleasure is in the sorting. Then trade your duplicates back into the small circuit of coastal collectors who share your chosen stretch, because they will have the cards you want, and they will want the ones you have. That exchange, more than any purchase, is how a good themed collection is built.