Postcrossing
is an online project that allows its members to send and receive postcards from
all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive
a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!”. Its
members, also known as postcrossers, send postcards to other members and
receive postcards back from other random postcrossers. Where the postcards come
from is always a surprise.
Postcrossing
is the union of the words "postcard" and "crossing" and its
origin "is loosely based on the Bookcrossing site". However, the "crossing" or exchange
of postcards works in a different way. A member sends a postcard to another
postcrosser and receives a postcard back from a random postcrosser. Exchanges
between the same two members only occur once; although direct swaps between
members happen, they are not part of the official happenings on the site.
The
project is completely free and anyone with an address can create an account.
However, the postcards themselves and postage fees to mail them are the
responsibility of each user.
By
June 2015 postcrossing had more than 554,570 members in 213 different
countries who had registered and exchanged over 30 million postcards that
have traveled over 151 billion kilometers.
The
highest concentration of postcrossing members reside (in order) in the United
States, Russia, China, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Finland,
Belarus, Ukraine and Brazil.
Postcrossing-themed Stamps
11 October
2011 - Netherlands
 |
#1 Postcrossing stamps
|
9
September 2013 - Finland
2 January
2014 - Belarus
28 May
2014 - Guernsey
27 January
2015 - Russia
29 May
2015 - Slovenia
2
September 2015 - Czech
 |
| #1 Postcrossing stamp design by Postcrossing Founder |
 |
| #1 Postcrossing postcard |
9
October 2015 - Ukraine
3 September 2016 – Netherlands
21 May 2016 – Austria
14
July 2016 – Poland
14 July 2016 – Guernsey
 |
| #1 Postcrossing Maxicard |
3
January 2017 – Belarus
24
February 2017 – Romania
22
July 2017 – Indonesia
7
September 2017 – Switzerland
4
October 2017 – Ireland
9
October 2017 – Malaysia