PHQ card

PHQ Cards are postcards depicting the design of a commemorative stamp issued by the British Post Office.

What are PHQ Cards?

The 'PHQ' stands for Postal Headquarters, all items published by the Post Office are given a number which is prefixed by letters. The first card issued, was the 3p W.G. Grace stamp from the set of stamps commemorating County Cricket, issued on 16th May 1973, this card was numbered PHQ 1, the numbering sequence has continued to the present day.
There is, however, one gap in the sequence. The number PHQ24 was originally set aside for the 9p Silver Jubilee card {this card was issued after the rest of the set}, when it was issued the card was numbered PHQ22E. The set of Wildlife cards, issued 5th October 1977, had already been allocated the number PHQ25, so the number PHQ24 was never used.

History

Although the Cricket stamps were issued in May, the card was not released until mid-July, subsequent cards have been issued about two weeks prior to the release of the stamps, this enables collectors to obtain the cards before the issue of the stamps so that they can attach the relevant stamp and obtain First Day of Issue postmarks.

When they were first issued, PHQ Cards were intended to be just an occasional picture postcard for sale to the public at Post Offices and Philatelic Counters. However, right from the first card issued, some enterprising Stamp Dealers realised that there was a potential new Stamp collecting area, and stamps were fixed either to the face of the card, or the back, and postmarks for various cricket matches played between July and September 1973 were obtained.

In August 1973 a second card was issued for one of the stamps in the set to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Inigo Jones, architect and designer. Over the next three years several more single cards, and a few sets were issued, from July 1976 onwards there has been a set of cards issued for every new set of commemorative stamps that has been issued.

The first two cards issued, 1973 Cricket and 1973 Inigo Jones, are larger than the current cards, measuring 120 mm x 172 mm in size, while all cards issued from PHQ 3 onward are 104 mm x 148 mm in size. This can be confusing for new collectors coming across the first two issues for the first time, if they are not aware of the size difference, they tend to think they are worthless copies.

Collecting PHQ Cards

There are three main collecting areas, many collectors like to collect only the unused cards. Other collectors like to obtain First day of issue postmarks or special handstamps that have some connection to the stamp subject matter.Some collectors will put the stamp on the back of the card, but a very popular area is for the stamp to be applied to the face of the card, so that the postcard picture, stamp and postmark are all visible on the same face.

Postmarks & Handstamps

The first card was not put on sale until two months after the issue date of the stamps, so would not have been eligible for a First day of issue postmark. However the card is known to exist with 16th May 1973, Birmingham FDI cancellation (back-dated by favour), but it is much more collectable with the July and September pictorial cricket postmarks.The cricket postmarks to look out for are 21st July, Benson & Hedges, and 1st September Gillette Cup.

The early issues

Below are the issue dates of all the early cards, issued up until July 1976, after this time a full set of cards has been issued for every commemorative set, and some of the definitive issues. (#cards = number of cards in the issue)

Acknowledgements

Stanley Gibbons Concise Stamp Catalogue.
Collect Post Office Cards (Published by Rosendale Stamps)
[http://www.gibbonsstampmonthly.com Gibbons Stamp Monthly]
Royal Mail Stamp Guide
Royal Mail British Philatelic Bulletin