Postcard Numbering
It is believed that the earliest postcards by SPH were printed without numbers. As their publishing business grew, they apparently decided to assign a number to their postcards in the lower left corner of the back / postal side. Cards start at number 1 and appear to end at the highest card 331. Forty-one (41) of the postcards within this range have not yet been identified.
There was a postcard numbered 400 printed by SPH. Nobody has yet to provide me any evidence of a postcard numbered between 331 and 400. Perhaps SPH lost track of their last number at some point in time and decided to start with number 400 to eliminate any duplication. Duplication? Why should they have worried. There are a number of different SPH postcards that have the same printed postcard number as other postcards. They can easily be identified in the SPH Postcard index by looking for an entry in the Sim column. As of the time of this writing, the following postcard numbers have multiple views/subjects: 21, 122, 154 through 163, 187, 229, 245, 260, 261 267, 304, 307, 309, 312, and 314. There are three different versions of postcard number 307 (see below for one rather unique non-SPH looking postcard). The Sim column is also used to report variations of the same postcard (a different view, a different phone number, etc.).
Two postcards have a suffix in addition to a whole number. Postcard 3-A contains a picture of the Wayside Inn in Middletown, Virginia. This picture is different than the picture that appears on the Wayside Inn postcard number 3. There is one other postcard known to have the -A suffix. Postcard 289-A contains a picture of the Busy Bee Restaurant in Winchester Virginia. There is also a 289-B Busy Bee Restaurant postcard.
Here a few examples of the number that appears on the back of SPH Postcards.
No Number
__________________________
Number 3-A
__________________________
Number 36
This page was last updated on April 27, 2006. Email comments to sphcollector@cox.net.