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Stamp boxes: date a real photo postcard by its back

Most real photo postcards name the brand of photographic paper in the stamp box — the small square in the upper-right corner of the back. Find your box below. Each brand and corner-mark pattern has a known production window, which gives your card a “no earlier than” date. Not sure your card is a real photo? Run the dots test in the wizard first.

A stamp box dates the paper, not the exposure — photographic paper could sit in stock. A postmark always outranks a stamp box for the latest possible date. Ranges are collector consensus, cross-checked across five references; where they disagree we say so on the brand page.