New Year Fortunes on Good Luck Dice Postcards

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Mancy by Mail: The Dominos and Dice of Fred C. Lounsbury

All of the material you have access to here -- the instructive booklets, the nostalgic postcards, the boldly graphic ephemera, and all of the historical information researched and shared from the mind of the woman who is making it all happen -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world. -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world. So, as you can see, this site is the darling of many, and it is growing at a rapid rate ... but although it is "free," there also is a cost. Your financial support underwrites this cost.

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In the early 20th century, colourful chromolithograph postcards were exchanged on almost every occasion, from birthdays and anniversaries to religious holidays and moments of sentimental thought. Such cards belong to the large category called "topicals," so named because they convey a topic of thought or emotion, unlike "views," which are images of places.

Topical good luck cards, like those for good wishes, or good cheer, can be sent any day of the year, but among the most popular of the good luck topicals of the early 20th century were the New Year good luck postcards, for by setting the tone of the New Year, they carried extra importance. Two types of good luck New Year's cards are common -- those that show images of lucky omens, such as horseshoes, four-leafed Clovers, and chimney sweeps and those that catch the moment that the luck is actually being conveyed by depicting a fortune-telling device in action, as if the person who sent you the card had just told your fortune for the year, and it was lucky.

New Year's Eve, with its parties and drinking, is allied to the social act of gambling, so postcards in which the sender takes on the role of one who is telling the recipient's fortune for the New Year often do so by displaying lucky combinations of cards, dominoes, or dice. During the era of the postcard craze, from 1905-1915, many such cards were printed in Germany with the greeting at the bottom left blank. They were then surprinted with the New Year's message in any of a number of different languages -- German, English, Hungarian, Latvian, Czech, and so forth -- and were sent forth for sale through distributors in the various nations. The unspoken idea here is that the knowledge of dice combinations, especially the popular three-dice readings -- is almost universal and transcends language.

As this page is being written, the New Year of 2023 is upon us, and so i shall share some lucky dice cards of the New Year that date from 1908-1970.

First, note that these cards were created by a number of different artists for several publishing companies in Germany and the United States -- yet the way the dice fall is always one of three ways: 6-6-6, 4-5-6, or 1-1-1. With the understanding that New Year's divination postcards are probably intended to be lucky and that negative predictions would be unusual, let's see how these Dice postcards accord with traditional methods of fortune-telling. For comparison, i will be consulting my own book, "Throwing the Bones: How to Foretell the Future with Bones, Shells, and Nuts". The material on Dice appears on pages 51 and 52.

"Throwing the Bones: How to Foretell the Future with Bones, Shells, and Nuts" by catherine yronwode(Lucky Mojo Curio Co., 2012).

Two methods of reading Dice are given in "Throwing the Bones" -- the "Dice Numerology" system, which totals the spots and reduces the number by adding digits together as in regular numerology, and the "British Dice Reading" system of three dice. I will give the interpretations for both, and we can see how they compare.

Six-Six-Six

We have four cards in this configuration. According to Dice Numerology :

• Total Spots 18, which is 1-plus-8 and equals 9: Complete, selfless, compassionate, generous, benevolent, patient, humanitarian, creative. Maybe, with a twist of fate it will happen.

According to the British Dice Reading Oracle:

• 18 Spots: Luck, good fortune, and Heaven’s blessing attend you now.

A leather dice-cup is tossing out the lucky combination six-six-six, and is surrounded by other lucky items: a golden horseshoe, Juniper berries, and numerous four-leaf Clovers. The card was printed in Germany around 1910. The surprinted inscription, "Daudz laimes Jauna gada!" is Latvian and means "Happy New Year."

A leather dice-cup is tossing out the lucky combination six-six-six, and is surrounded by other lucky items: a golden horse shoe, a pair of Amanita muscaria mushrooms (in German their name is "Gluckspilz" or "Lucky Mushroom"), Juniper berries, and numerous four-leaf Clovers. The card was printed in Germany around 1910. The surprinted inscription, "Boldog uj evet," is Hungarian and means "Happy New Year."

A leather dice-cup stands beside the lucky combination six-six-six, surrounded by four-leaf clovers. The message is "Good Luck." The card is marked S.D.303 and Copyright 1908 N.G.Y. It was sent to Miss Maude Lucas, 1238 Greenwich St., Reading, Pa., and postmarked Baxter (Pennsylvania) in 1913. The message reads exactly as i have written it out here: "Hellow Dot hope you are well haven't herd from you fore a long time, am well the rest are well ans soon as ever Mother."

A leather dice-cup is tossing out the lucky combination six-six-six, and is surrounded by other lucky and festive items: four playing cards showing four Aces, holly berries, and party or gift ribbons. This photographic card was printed in Germany around 1970. The surprinted inscription, "Ein glückliches Neues Jahr," is Hungarian and means "A Lucky New Year."

Four-Five-Six

According to Dice Numerology:

• Total Spots 15, which is 1-plus-5 and equals 6: Harmonious, artistic, just, balanced, service-oriented, responsible, loving, protective, nurturing, sympathetic. Answers will come forth.

According to the British Dice Reading Oracle:

• 15 Spots: Mind what you say and do; do not gossip lest disaster befall.

These interpretations are all over the map. Dice Numerology tells us that "answers will come forth," presumably in the New Year, but it is in completely different realm of prediction from the stern warning not to gossip "lest disaster befall" that is given by the British Dice Reading Oracle.

A leather dice-cup is tossing out the combination four-five-six, surrounded by four-leaf clovers. The message is "Good Luck." The card is marked S.D.303 and Copyright 1908 N.G.Y. Th card is postally unused.

Good Fortunes as Told by Dice: Fifteen, Success (and a Happy New Year). This card was published by Fred C. Lounsbury of the Crescent Embossing Company of Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1907. It also appears at the page on Domino and Dice Postcards by Fred C. Lounsbury. It is the only card that i have from that series that is surprinted as a New Year's greeting, and, frankly, it is an odd choice, given the meanings assigned to the dice.

= One-One-One

According to Dice Numerology:

• Total Spots 3: Intelligent, communicative, social, learned, literate, creative, diversified, dramatic, expressive. A pleasant surprise awaits you.

According to the British Dice Reading Oracle:

• 3 Spots: Circumstances will change without warning, and very soon.

A leather dice-cup is tossing out the combination one-one-one, surrounded by four-leaf clovers. Note that the spots on the dice are all hearts; the implication is that this is a love-reading for the New Year. The surprinted inscription, "Viel glück zum Neuen Jahr," is German and means "Much luck for the New Year."

The card was printed in Germany around 1910.]]

Happy New Year to you -- whatever year you are reading this in!

See Also

Defining Divination

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catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate