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Important Events in Maximaphily History

The earliest known Maximum Card may be from Portugal. This card consists of an illustrated postal card and a stamp commemorating Prince Henry the Navigator. The item was postmarked in PORTO (the birth place) on March 4, 1894, the first day of issue of both the stamp and postal card. A few examples exist. At the beginning of the 20th century, some of the postcard collectors who had an interest in philately made T.C.V. (timbre côté vue) cards, signifying that the postage stamp was affixed to the picture side of the postcard. The T.C.V. was the precursor of the Maximum Card: concordance only between two elements, postcard and postmark.

Above: Early Russian Maximum Card (1909). Spasski Tower, Moscow, topped by a double headed eagle. The regular postage stamp (Yvert #64) was affixed to the view side of the postcard and cancelled at MOSCOW on 9.09.1909. The stamp pictures the Imperial Eagle, thus matching the eagle on the tower pictured on the postcard. Card published by W. Pfister of St. Petersburg, sent from Moscow to Le Havre in France (written in Esperanto).

Above: Early T.C.V. with concordance between the subject of the stamp (the Pyramids), the place of cancellation (CAIRO) and the picture postcard, postally used in 1909 from CAIRO. Card published by Lichtenstern & Harari, Cairo, No. 14. Divided back, captioned 'Carte postale Universelle'.

In time, the term Maximum Card replaced the term T.C.V., with concordance between the subject of the stamp, the place of cancellation and the picture postcard. The term Maximum Card first appeared in the August 1932 issue of 'Le libre Exchange' published in Belgium. The first association of Maximum Card collectors was founded in FRANCE on January 19, 1945 as 'Les Maximaphiles Français'. In time, maximaphily organizations were created in Romania (1957), Belgium (1969), Germany, USA, Switzerland (1975), Italy (1976), Portugal (1978), Brazil (1979), Greece (1980), Spain (1985), Luxembourg, Hungary, Taiwan and Israel (1992). Maximaphily was first recognized by the International Federation of Philately (FIP) at PRAGA'78, Czechoslovakia and from 1980 became an independent branch of Philately.

Note: In MAXIMAPHILY the term First refers to either: (1) Where it is known that the particular stamp issue was the first used to create a maximum card in that country. (2) Where a maximum card was created with the first stamp issue. The first known Maximum Card from Greece is from 1896, from Italy - 1896, Spain - 1900, England - 1900, Romania - 1901, Bulgaria - 1901, France - 1902, Austria - 1908, Russia - 1909, Turkey - 1910 (based on my personal resources).

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