Have you ever met a mean or nasty postcard collector? I haven’t! (Well, maybe once.) So, if you are a totally kind individual, as most postcard collectors are, you should read this article, but please don’t take anything to heart, none of these are addressed to you.

The topic of Vinegar Valentines is popular and several Internet sites have devoted pages to the history of the genre. Claims that vinegar valentines date back to the 1840s suggest that it was then that secret haters would send their victims messages so nasty that they would make people cry.

When postcard senders took up the practice of mailing vinegar valentines, the cards were mostly a British and American phenomenon.

Most of the vinegar cards showcase an unflattering illustration and a two, three, or four line “poem” that described the recipient and what should become of them. Such nasty lines as:

            To the Coquette, “… your goo goo eyes don’t fool me now, We know you’ll never marry” or to the Singer, “That voice of yours is very bad, You’ll never learn to sing.”

            To the Poet, “You tell of your feelings in every poem, But what we think is that you’re in need of a good square meal.”

            To your Chauffeur, “As a chauffeur you can hardly run a car; but as a grafter, you’re a star.

The insults keep coming, for they are anonymous and say things that the sender would never think to utter to someone’s face. Who says, “The world today is a nasty place!” It seems that it’s been so for a long time.

Even though Vinegar Valentines are often cruel and mean they are still fun to collect. Postcard History presents the following checklists for the six most popular and easiest to collect series. ONE CAVEAT: these list are not guaranteed – they may be incomplete and the titles may reflect many inaccuracies, but they will provide you with enough information to begin a significate collection. More than 150 cards are listed.

*   *   *