Valentine Card: Vintage 1950s, Navy Sailor & Girl, Unused, A-Meri-Card, Ephemera

A navy sailor peers through his binoculars while a sassy girl catches his eye: “If You Will Be My Valentine.” Cheeky, nautical, and never folded.

• Maker: A-Meri-Card
• Materials: Cardstock, fold-out die-cut
• Dimensions: Unfolded 5.25 × 4 inches; folded approx. 4 × 3.5 inches
• Origin: USA
• Era: Vintage 1950s
• Condition: Excellent vintage condition, New Old Stock — unused and never folded, with no writing or issues; no envelope. Please review photos closely before purchasing, as all sales are final.

Sailors were a favorite valentine subject in the years after World War II, when servicemen and their sweethearts filled so much of American popular imagery. This fold-out die-cut card pairs that nautical theme with a sweetly forward sentiment, and because it was never folded or sent, its colors and cut edges remain as crisp as the day it was printed.

A fun find for a greeting card collector, or a playful piece for arts and crafts and vintage valentine displays.

A-Meri-Card has one of the more intriguing backstories in American greeting cards. The name appears on cards well before American Greetings of Cleveland filed its trademark in January 1960, and at least some 1940s A-Meri-Card pieces, including a 1947 punch-out party book, carry markings from the American Colortype Company, a large commercial color printer based in Chicago and New York. American Greetings carried the brand forward and kept it in production into at least the 1980s. Most surviving examples date to the 1950s and 1960s, and their die-cut designs and cheerful puns have made them favorites with collectors of mid-century ephemera.

Pair it with our other A-Meri-Card fold-up valentines to build a matching set.