Hey guys!!
Has anyone tried sending cards to Antarctica or has anyone received one??
Can you suggest how I can get a card from Antarctica and send one of mine there?
I have never sent or recieved a card or sent a card to Antartica
Is there a Post Office there?
I so want to go there now as there are no COVID19 cases there
In the old forum there was a thread about cards from and to Antartica
I have received a card from Antarctica once (a private swap though). At the moment there are two members sending from Antarctica. So there is a slight chance.
There is one in Port Lockroy. Port Lockroy is a destination for some cruise ships from Latin America.
edit: as I’m now at my PC I can show you an example for the stamp + cancellation when sent from Port Lockroy:
Hi, if you go to https://taaf.fr/
Menu: Missions and Activities: Post and Philately from TAAF:
Information all there, I’ve not yet done it myself but as @Bille said in the old forum I know two member who did and were successful. Hope you get one, if so do let us know, thanks.
The easiest way to get a postcard from Antarctica is you have to send the postcard by yourself to a staff destined to Antarctica who in turn will post it back to you. You need the correct stamps depending on what station you send to. Your best bet is to find what countries have Antarctic stations, contact them or sent a request thru the agency handling the stations. Here are some address where you can send to:
Hello, it appears that Port Lockroy post office is closed this season.
Please note that if you do this and want the stamp (not just a commemorative postmark) to reflect Antarctica, you should go for one of the countries like @Cassiopheia’s example from Englnad’s Port Lockroy that do not adhere to the Antarctic Treaty. They claim territory for their countries and issue “Antarctic” stamps; countries that are members of the treaty do not. My husband worked several seasons in McMurdo and was also once at South Pole Station – my letters and postcards from both all have standard domestic U.S. stamps (I was living in the U.S. at the time) because they are sent through the U.S. base, which uses the U.S. Post. When we were lucky enough to send cards as tourists from Russian and Polish stations, it was similar – the cards had special commemorative postmarks from Antarctica, but were posted through Chile or Argentina and have stamps from those countries. @Bille’s link includes a more comprehensive discussion about this.
Before I forget, while most countries use the stamps of the country they belong to, some stations have special or dedicated stamps that they can only use. An example would be the French bases where you have to use TAAF stamps, and not the French stamps. Fortunately they can be bought online. These are.
Would an IRC work?
Yes. I’ve used it when I first start sending to Antarctica. Still used it for countries I can’t get a stamp of.
Thank you!! This was really helpful!
Philatelists (stamp collectors) are interested in receiving mail from Antarctica, and the National Science Foundation has a procedure (see below) to support philately at a level not to interfere with the science mission.
While in Antarctica, you may receive unsolicited philatelic mail from collectors. The Foundation discourages this unauthorized philatelic activity, and you will be entirely within your rights in declining to respond to such unsolicited requests. Please discard the material in the appropriate recycling container. If you receive large amounts of unsolicited philatelic mail, bring it to the attention of the station manager or the NSF Representative.
Philatelists may obtain a maximum of two covers (self-addressed stamped envelopes) a year by writing to the postal clerks (addresses below) at the three year-round U.S. antarctic stations.
- No more than two covers per person per station per year.
- Covers will be processed for personal (that is, noncommercial) use of individuals only.
- U.S. correspondents use domestic first-class postage for the APO addresses (below) and international first-class or air mail postage for the Palmer Station address.
- Non-U.S. correspondents use international first-class or airmail postage.
Philatelic Mail Clerk
McMurdo Station,Antarctica
PSC 769
APO AP 96599-1035
Philatelic Mail Clerk
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
PSC 768 Box 400
APO AP 96598
Philatelic Mail Clerk
Palmer Station, Antarctica
c/o Damco
Deposito Franco Antartico
P.O. Box 60-D
Punta Arenas, Chile
Covers are not processed if these guidelines are not followed. Information in this Science Program Summary is not to be used to circumvent the above policy.
Philatelic mail is processed and returned to senders as soon as possible, but the processing is in addition to regular duties of station personnel. Some processing is done during the austral winter, when antarctic stations are isolated, resulting in year-long (or longer) delays in mailing covers back to the collectors.
Oh wow! Thank you
Recently I have been tracking the Postcrossing activity of Antarctica (through statistics) and I notest that all cards seem to be sent from McMurdo Station; but from the picture, description and comments the cards were sent from other stations in Antarctica.
@meiadeleite Is the McMurdo Station the only place in Antarctica we can select on Travel Mode?
I believe so! They might be the only location marked as “populated place” in Geonames’ list of places in Antarctica, which is what we use in Postcrossing.
Note that anyone can contribute to Geonames and help improve the information they have there — the project is free and open to contributions from anyone. The changes will be merged into Postcrossing on the next update.
McMurdo Station is the only place marked as an populated place in Antarctica; the other stations are marked as research station.
I got a postcard from Antarctica from Czech Antarctic Foundation two years ago. It was sent from Chile. However, I am not sure if they offer postcards at the moment.
This is a card I received from Port Lockroy which is the most southerly operated post office in Antarctic.It is located on Goudier island and is sometimes referred to as Penguin post office as the island is also home to 3,000 gentoo penguins.
That’s interesting! Is it because McMurdo is the only one that has a permanent settlement and people stay there the whole year? I confess my Antarctica knowledge is a bit slim.