Tool · dating by postage
Date a postcard by its postage rate
The US postcard rate changed on exact dates, and every change is a hard boundary. Two different clues live here: the rate printed in the stamp box ("PLACE ONE CENT STAMP HERE") bounds when the card was manufactured, while an affixed stamp and its cancel bound when it was mailed — which can be years apart. Pick the amount you see:
The full rate table
| Rate | In effect | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2¢ | 1873 – May 18, 1898 | privately printed cards before the Private Mailing Card Act; government postals were 1 cent |
| 1¢ | May 19, 1898 – November 1, 1917 | the Private Mailing Card Act rate; spans the golden age |
| 2¢ | November 2, 1917 – June 30, 1919 | WWI war rate |
| 1¢ | July 1, 1919 – April 14, 1925 | |
| 2¢ | April 15, 1925 – June 30, 1928 | |
| 1¢ | July 1, 1928 – December 31, 1951 | |
| 2¢ | January 1, 1952 – July 31, 1958 | Smithsonian table misprints this as 1 cent; see anomalies |
| 3¢ | August 1, 1958 – January 6, 1963 | |
| 4¢ | January 7, 1963 – January 6, 1968 | |
| 5¢ | January 7, 1968 – May 15, 1971 | |
| 6¢ | May 16, 1971 – March 1, 1974 | |
| 8¢ | March 2, 1974 – September 13, 1975 | |
| 7¢ | September 14, 1975 – December 30, 1975 | a rare rate DECREASE — 7 cents came after 8 |
| 9¢ | December 31, 1975 – May 28, 1978 | |
| 10¢ | May 29, 1978 – March 21, 1981 | |
| 12¢ | March 22, 1981 – October 31, 1981 | |
| 13¢ | November 1, 1981 – February 16, 1985 | |
| 14¢ | February 17, 1985 – April 2, 1988 | |
| 15¢ | April 3, 1988 – February 2, 1991 | |
| 19¢ | February 3, 1991 – December 31, 1994 | |
| 20¢ | January 1, 1995 – June 30, 2001 | |
| 21¢ | July 1, 2001 – June 29, 2002 | |
| 23¢ | June 30, 2002 – January 7, 2006 | |
| 24¢ | January 8, 2006 – May 13, 2007 | |
| 26¢ | May 14, 2007 – May 11, 2008 | |
| 27¢ | May 12, 2008 – May 10, 2009 | |
| 28¢ | May 11, 2009 – April 16, 2011 | |
| 29¢ | April 17, 2011 – January 21, 2012 | |
| 32¢ | January 22, 2012 – January 26, 2013 | |
| 33¢ | January 27, 2013 – onward | later increases continue; for vintage dating, rates past the 1990s rarely matter |
Three more clues hiding in the address
The publisher's printed address dates the card's manufacture too: a two-digit postal zone between city and state ("Des Moines 17, Iowa") means 1943 or later; a five-digit ZIP code means January 1963 or later; a ZIP+4 means October 1983 or later.
Rate history cross-checked between the Smithsonian Institution Archives table (itself compiled from Historical Statistics of the United States, the Postal Regulatory Commission, and the USPS Historian) and Playle's postage-dating chart. One misprint in the Smithsonian table (the 1952 rate shown as 1¢) is corrected here: both Playle's and the subsequent 1958 increase to 3¢ confirm 1952–1958 was the 2¢ era. End dates are derived from the start of each following rate. Address-format clues from Playle's.