Create a maximum card !

What is a maximum card ? Wikipedia says :

"Maximaphily is a branch of philately involving the study and creation of maximum cards.It is one of eleven classifications of philately recognised by the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) and therefore has its own FIP Commission.

The FIP Maximaphily Commission holds an annual conference on the subject, most recently at Bucharest in 2008.

A maximum card is made up of three elements, the postcard, the stamp and the postmark. The object of maximaphily is to obtain a card where the stamp and picture are in close concordance, ideally with an appropriate cancellation too. The image should not be of the stamp on the card.

Maximaphily displays have become popular at competitive philatelic exhibitions and special rules have been developed by the FIP to assist in judging the entries.

Maximaphily did not become organised until after the Second World War. Before then maximum cards were created as novelties, often by tourists. Maximaphily is closely associated with thematic or topical stamp collecting and many thematic collections are enhanced with appropriate maximum cards."

We will create ourselves our maximum cards ! So you will find a nice stamp and a matching postcard (not the same design but it MUST be the same theme). Choose a theme related to where you live, so the postmark will fit the theme too.

An example : you are lucky and you live in a town which have its own stamp ! (or a monument in this town) You will easily have a match between card, stamp and postmark. If none of the stamps in your country is fitting with the little village where you live, don't cry ! ^^ You can send a maximum card with national symbols (as the picture I choosed for this swap, or it can be a flag etc...). But try to be as creative as possible to make your partner happy ! First days can also be a great occasion to have nice postmarks !

You will have one partner. The date to sign is pretty far to let you some time to think about the card/stamp you will choose. Put the stamp on the view side !!! (if you have to put other stamps for sending international, put them on the blank side). Write to your partner a nice note explaining your choice of card. Send the cark "naked" (no enveloppe). GO TO POSTOFFICE, don't put the card in the mail box, to be sure to have a nicely made postmark on the stamp.

Feel free to ask anything about this swap. I hope you will have with this ! :-)