Welcome to my guide on PHQ cards I hope you find the following information useful if you are new to collecting them.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

All subsequent issues of British Commemorative Stamps had a set of PHQ Cards issued.

Like the stamps they depict, because of the printing processes involved, errors and differences will occur in the printings. Some of these errors and differences are sought after by many collectors. Some of the notable differences and errors are listed here.

The card for London 1980 (to commemorate the 1980 International Stamp Exhibition), issued 9th April 1980, and the set of five cards for London Landmarks, issued 7th May 1980, both had the reference number PHQ 43.

Note on pricing and condition - In many publications there is often two prices for Mint condition cards. The first price is for cards in first class condition. The second price is for cards with slight imperfections i.e. bent corners, slight scratches, etc. Obviously the more the card is damaged the less the value. Prices for used cards are for special postmarks on face, special on reverse and First Day Issue postmarks on either face or reverse. Local postmarks or slogan postmarks are worth considerably less, unless they have a strong connection with the actual card then they could be worth a premium. For example the Reformers cards exist with the Colliery postmarks are very scarce.

Errors (or misprints) on PHQ cards are rare as they are security printed and occur very infrequently. PHQ cards with missing colours are the most sought after and can be very effective. Approximate prices for such errors are as follows:

Missing colours: £25.00 - £100.00 (depending on effectiveness)

Shift of colour: £2.50 - £30.00 (depending on effectiveness)

Printed on wrong side: £5.00 - £15.00

Reverse side blank: £10.00 - £20.00

Used cards are postal items and therefore come under postal regulations. The Post Office are very good about replacing bad postmarks but quite correctly they regard minor damage such as bent corners to be normal postage usage. Therefore collectors of used cards have to be slightly more tolerent than collectors of mint cards.