The 'PHQ' stands for Postal Headquarters. As a rule, all items published by the Post Office are given a number which is prefixed by letters. The first card issued, was the 3p W.G. Grace stamp from the set commemorating County Cricket, issued on 16th May 1973. This card was numbered PHQ 1, the numbering sequence has continued to the present day.

An anomaly exists in that the number PHQ24 was originally set aside for the 9p Silver Jubilee card (The stamp and card was issued after the rest of the set), when it was issued the card was numbered PHQ22E. The set of Wildlife cards, issued 5th October 1977, had already been allocated the number PHQ25, so the number PHQ24 was never used.

Although the Cricket stamps were issued in May, the card was not released until mid-July, subsequent cards have been issued about two weeks prior to the release of the stamps, this enables collectors to obtain the cards before the issue of the stamps so that they can attach the relevant stamp and obtain First Day of Issue postmarks.

When they were first issued, PHQ Cards were intended to be just an occasional picture postcard for sale to the public at Post Offices and Philatelic Counters. However, right from the first card issued, some enterprising Stamp Dealers realised that there was a potential new Stamp collecting area, and stamps were fixed either to the face of the card, or the back, and postmarks for various cricket matches played between July and September 1973 were obtained.

In August 1973 a second card was issued for one of the stamps in the set to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Inigo Jones, architect and designer. Over the next three years several more single cards, and a few sets were issued, from July 1976 onwards there has been a set of cards issued for every new set of commemorative stamps that has been issued.

The first two cards issued, 1973 Cricket and 1973 Inigo Jones, are larger than the current cards, measuring 120 mm x 172 mm in size, while all cards issued from PHQ 3 onward are 104 mm x 148 mm in size.

There are three main collecting areas, many collectors like to collect only the unused cards. Other collectors like to obtain First day of issue postmarks or special hand stamps that have some connection to the stamp subject matter. Some collectors will put the stamp on the back of the card, but a very popular area is for the stamp to be applied to the face of the card, so that the postcard picture, stamp and postmark are all visible on the same face.

As the first card was not put on sale until two months after the issue date of the stamps, so would not have been eligible for a First day of issue postmark. However the card is known to exist with 16th May 1973, Birmingham FDI cancellation, but it is deemed more collectable with the July and September pictorial cricket postmarks.

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