I hope you still remember this rectangular piece of thin cardboard with a picture or painting on the front and a space for writing and mailing on the back side. In our modern times of paperless communication sending and receiving a postcard has become something special, if not peculiar. Writing a personal message on a postcard and putting a stamp on it seems to be an almost nostalgic act in the 21st century.
Let us go back in time for a moment and dwell on the nostalgia of the bygone era of the postcard!
So, if you want to log this multi-cache (actually, I would rather call it a duo-cache) you have to do the following things:
1. Answer the questions related to interesting facts about the postcard. By doing so, you will get the coordinates that will guide you to the first stage of the cache. Here you will find a piece of paper with the coordinates of the second stage.
2. The final cache does not hold a logbook. You have to bring a picture postcard and write at least your name on it. A pen is provided. Personal messages are welcome but not required. Put your signed postcard in the envelope/bag that you will find in the mailbox. Logs that I cannot relate to a postcard in the physical mailbox will be deleted. You do not have to put a stamp on your postcard (the regular mailman will not come to this remote place in the woods).
3. Please, bring the piece of paper with the coordinates back to the first stage and hide it in the exact same way as you found it.
Important advice: In summertime, there are sometimes a lot of mosquitos at the final location. When I placed the cache they were bugging me a lot. Rather wear long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt or use insect repellent.
Here are the questions related to the postcard:
1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (date of reference: 17/12/2014) the largest postcard ever produced measures an astonishing X7,188 m⊃2;. > A= X-1
2. HTL-postcards often depict night time scenes and have cut out areas for the light to shine through.
What does the acronym HTL stand for?
B = How many times does the letter “o” occur in these three words?
3. In the year 1__6__ an US-American patented the first commercially produced postal card.
C = sum of missing numbers in the date (year)
4. The company Kodak developed the so called 3A Folding Pocket Camera (model 3A). This special camera for making exposures in postcard format was introduced 190__ and sold until the year 191__.
D = sum of missing numbers in the two years
5. This postcard is considered to be the oldest picture postcard. An interesting fact about this postcard is that the sender addressed it to himself. By the way, according to the Guinness Book this postcard is also the most expensive postcard ever sold at an auction (£31,758.75).
The oldest picture postcard was sent in the year 18E0.
E = missing number in the year + 3
6. He was born on 28. Y. 1875 and is called the "king of saucy postcards". Some of his artwork was even censored for its explicit content and/or sexual undertone. One of his controversial postcards depicts a young man and woman resting under a tree. The man holds a book and asks her: “Do you like Kipling?” She responds: “I don't know, you naughty boy. I've never kippled.”
By the way, this postcard also holds the world record for selling the most copies, at over X million (according to the paperback edition of the Guiness Book of World Records from 1978; since that time, records related to postcards have been discontinued).
What is the name of the man who designed this No. 1 selling and many other famous postcards?
F = X-Y
You will find the first stage at the coordinates:
N 46 03.ABC
E 014 27.DEF
Control: If you add up the correct numbers (A+B+C+D+E+F) you should receive a total of 35.
Have fun with doing your little research on postcard facts and, of course, finding the cache!
I am looking forward to emptying the mailbox and reading your cards.
