"Madonna postcards"

One of the most treasured postcard set in my collection are the postcards printed by JMC Press, Inc. of Quezon City and distributed through Goodwill Bookstores. The company does not have its own website so I cannot give detailed history about their postcard production.

The postcards are chrome types. They have a glossy surface and are made from color photos. "Madonna postcards" also include some 3D postcards. Quite unique I must say. Most of the images on the postcards were taken in the 60's. This is the reason why I treasure the set. You can see the changes the capital and some parts of the country underwent in the past 40 years.

Back of a "Madonna postcard"

At the back of a "Madonna postcard," one can see the stamp box at the upper right portion of the card; however, not all postcards have this. At the bottom right portion are the year of the copyright, which is 1967, and the name of the printing company, JMC Press, Inc., Quezon City, Philippines.

Typical with modern divided postcards is the line down the middle that separates the message portion from the address portion. You can also see the word "Madonna" at the middle. This is the reason why I named them Madonna postcards. At the bottom left portion of the card is some text (information and/or location) about the image.

Below the line is the publisher code, I call it. The code is used to uniquely identify their postcards, and for me to easily sort out the postcards. I have so far seen three different codes in my set of postcards. They are:

(1) Fx (x is a number)
-- I believe F stands for flower since all postcards with this code have images of flowers!
-- Size: 4"x5.5"
-- Type: Chrome
-- Lowest code I have in my collection is F1, highest is F23

(2) x (x is a number)-- Images mostly are landmarks from different parts of the country (lots of Luneta Park images), rural scenes, Philippine folk dances and flowers (again)
-- Size: 4"x5.5"
-- Types: Chrome, and some 3D (Yes, Three-dimensional postcards)
-- Lowest code I have is 15, highest is 45

(3) xxxx (x is a number)
-- Images mostly are landmarks from different parts of the country, rural scenes (harvesting, fishing, etc.), Philippine presidents, and Philippine folk dances
-- probably same as #2; just a 4-digit code (but i don't have any 3-digit coded postcards)
-- Lowest code I have is 1001, highest is 1504
(4) xxx-85 (x is a number)
-- The name of the city is inside the colored border and the city's recognizable landmark as the image
-- Wondering if 85 is the year of copyright, 1985
-- size 4"x6"
-- Type: Chrome
-- Lowest code I have is 135, highest is 171

In my following posts, I added the letter M before the publisher code to identify the postcards in the post.