Cut Squares of Postal Stationary

I'm going through a cut square collection. I seem to have hundreds if
not thousands. I'm at the same time writing in a message box the pros
and cons of cut squares trying to understand why they have never
excited the stamp collector as much as other areas. Are they boring?
Difficult with their die variations? Postal Stationary enjoys
popularity in Postal History with up-rating with stamps and rare
cancels. Some hard core stamp collectors would even collect used
Entires for select reasons but what are some reasons that a stamp
collector would go after a lowly cut square? US cut squares have some
huge catalog values but I rarely witness the sale of these items.
Why is it you like or dislike Cut Squares?

Positives:
Never been soaked
Rarely with thins
Never pulled perfs
On nice papers
Resembles imperforates but with nice big margins
Has many overprint varieties
Has clear cancels because of flatness
Has some unique designs
Can be in combination with stamps
Not much forgery
No gum problems, maybe on registered flaps
No hinged problems (or is hinging a problem?)
Can contain the entire cancel

Negatives:
Not many series of denominations
Not many commemorative designs
Many designs lack the complexity of stamp designs
Mostly one color
So many cameos
Margin problems and cancels cut away
A mint cut square really isn't mint, now is it


TL

On 14 Jan 2007 14:21:13 -0800, "TL" wrote:

I'm going through a cut square collection. I seem to have hundreds if
not thousands. I'm at the same time writing in a message box the pros
and cons of cut squares trying to understand why they have never
excited the stamp collector as much as other areas. Are they boring?
Difficult with their die variations? Postal Stationary enjoys
popularity in Postal History with up-rating with stamps and rare
cancels. Some hard core stamp collectors would even collect used
Entires for select reasons but what are some reasons that a stamp
collector would go after a lowly cut square? US cut squares have some
huge catalog values but I rarely witness the sale of these items.
Why is it you like or dislike Cut Squares?

I used to collect them. I now save them to give away to anyone who
wants them. I was going to collect postal stationery but with my
current collecting interests, it was way out of my league (money &
time).

Positives:
Never been soaked

No necessarily. Had to soak many of them with nasty hinges.

Rarely with thins

Most times.

Never pulled perfs

Absolutely.

On nice papers

Some are extremely nice, especially the colored paper from days of
yore.

Resembles imperforates but with nice big margins

If someone cuts it correctly, or if the entire wasn't sliced and diced
on the postage side of the entire.

Has many overprint varieties

Many countries have done this, according to H&G.

Has clear cancels because of flatness

What about the embossed squares?

Has some unique designs

The Columbians, some of the latter 18th century. The newer ones are
sometimes 2 pieces, hologram or other...

Can be in combination with stamps

Interesting sub area to collect, no doubt.

Not much forgery

True, but some.

No gum problems, maybe on registered flaps

BC and their gum on the same side of the entire. Yuck.

No hinged problems (or is hinging a problem?)

Plenty, in older collections. Multi-hinged gunk at times.

Can contain the entire cancel

If the person cuts it as such.


Negatives:
Not many series of denominations

Except for the 19th century stuff.

Not many commemorative designs

True, but some pictorials exist.

Many designs lack the complexity of stamp designs

But are themselves complex enough to baffle some of the best
philatelists.

Mostly one color

True.

So many cameos

Yup.

Margin problems and cancels cut away

Many times. Cleaning up old collections, one will see this a lot.

A mint cut square really isn't mint, now is it

No, because it truly can't be used elsewhere.

I've never understood why anyone would want to collect mutilated
postal stationery!

Jay Carrigan change domain to mchsi
www.jaypex.com


In article . com,
says...

I'm going through a cut square collection. I seem to have hundreds if
not thousands. I'm at the same time writing in a message box the pros
and cons of cut squares trying to understand why they have never
excited the stamp collector as much as other areas. Are they boring?
Difficult with their die variations? Postal Stationary enjoys
popularity in Postal History with up-rating with stamps and rare
cancels. Some hard core stamp collectors would even collect used
Entires for select reasons but what are some reasons that a stamp
collector would go after a lowly cut square? US cut squares have some
huge catalog values but I rarely witness the sale of these items.
Why is it you like or dislike Cut Squares?

Positives:
Never been soaked
Rarely with thins
Never pulled perfs
On nice papers
Resembles imperforates but with nice big margins
Has many overprint varieties
Has clear cancels because of flatness
Has some unique designs
Can be in combination with stamps
Not much forgery
No gum problems, maybe on registered flaps
No hinged problems (or is hinging a problem?)
Can contain the entire cancel

Negatives:
Not many series of denominations
Not many commemorative designs
Many designs lack the complexity of stamp designs
Mostly one color
So many cameos
Margin problems and cancels cut away
A mint cut square really isn't mint, now is it


TL

On Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:45:05 GMT, (Jay T.
Carrigan) wrote:

I've never understood why anyone would want to collect mutilated
postal stationery!

Maybe because it would almost be impossible to collect pristine
entires?

Tracy,
Seems to me that soaking some cut corners would be more ruinous than
leaving the hinge remnant.

The embossed concept seems to have been an early idea that stayed and
made up somewhat for the simplistic designs.

Tom




wrote:
On 14 Jan 2007 14:21:13 -0800, "TL" wrote:

I'm going through a cut square collection. I seem to have hundreds if
not thousands. I'm at the same time writing in a message box the pros
and cons of cut squares trying to understand why they have never
excited the stamp collector as much as other areas. Are they boring?
Difficult with their die variations? Postal Stationary enjoys
popularity in Postal History with up-rating with stamps and rare
cancels. Some hard core stamp collectors would even collect used
Entires for select reasons but what are some reasons that a stamp
collector would go after a lowly cut square? US cut squares have some
huge catalog values but I rarely witness the sale of these items.
Why is it you like or dislike Cut Squares?

I used to collect them. I now save them to give away to anyone who
wants them. I was going to collect postal stationery but with my
current collecting interests, it was way out of my league (money &
time).

Positives:
Never been soaked

No necessarily. Had to soak many of them with nasty hinges.



Has clear cancels because of flatness

What about the embossed squares?



No hinged problems (or is hinging a problem?)

Plenty, in older collections. Multi-hinged gunk at times.

Jay,
One can ask that now but really, as the hobby evolved why would
collectors soak millions of stamps off of envelopes and for some
strange reason collect stationary in its entirety?
Tom

Jay T. Carrigan wrote:
I've never understood why anyone would want to collect mutilated
postal stationery!

Jay Carrigan change domain to mchsi
www.jaypex.com


In article . com,
says...

I'm going through a cut square collection. I seem to have hundreds if
not thousands. I'm at the same time writing in a message box the pros
and cons of cut squares trying to understand why they have never
excited the stamp collector as much as other areas. Are they boring?
Difficult with their die variations? Postal Stationary enjoys
popularity in Postal History with up-rating with stamps and rare
cancels. Some hard core stamp collectors would even collect used
Entires for select reasons but what are some reasons that a stamp
collector would go after a lowly cut square? US cut squares have some
huge catalog values but I rarely witness the sale of these items.
Why is it you like or dislike Cut Squares?

Positives:
Never been soaked
Rarely with thins
Never pulled perfs
On nice papers
Resembles imperforates but with nice big margins
Has many overprint varieties
Has clear cancels because of flatness
Has some unique designs
Can be in combination with stamps
Not much forgery
No gum problems, maybe on registered flaps
No hinged problems (or is hinging a problem?)
Can contain the entire cancel

Negatives:
Not many series of denominations
Not many commemorative designs
Many designs lack the complexity of stamp designs
Mostly one color
So many cameos
Margin problems and cancels cut away
A mint cut square really isn't mint, now is it


TL

Hi
Many, many years ago, worldwide cut squares were listed in
woldwide catalogues, such as Scott's until about 1903. I have an album
printed in Germany around 1903 that included spaces for worldwide cut
squares. Actually about one third of the album was for cut squares.
Both envelope and postal cards were collected as cut squares.
Possibly one reason for the lack of interest is no readly
available catalog or albums. H&G is curently out of date but I've heard
that it may be updated in the near future. But that will only value
entire envelopes or poatal cards.
Have fun, Art

Art,
I bet it is a Lucke's Permanent Ganzsachen Album. Seems
"Ganzsachen-Teil" means "Complete Things-Part".
Tom


Art wrote:
Hi
Many, many years ago, worldwide cut squares were listed in
woldwide catalogues, such as Scott's until about 1903. I have an album
printed in Germany around 1903 that included spaces for worldwide cut
squares. Actually about one third of the album was for cut squares.
Both envelope and postal cards were collected as cut squares.
Possibly one reason for the lack of interest is no readly
available catalog or albums. H&G is curently out of date but I've heard
that it may be updated in the near future. But that will only value
entire envelopes or poatal cards.
Have fun, Art

Art wrote:

Many, many years ago, worldwide cut squares were listed in
woldwide catalogues, such as Scott's until about 1903.

The older Scott standard catalogues used to price their U.S.
listings as cut squares - I have a 1975 catalogue that says the entire
envelopes are valued only in the U.S. Specialized Catalogue. Funny to
me (as a Canadian) is that this 1975 version uses the spelling
"catalogue" instead of the common American spelling "catalog".
I seem to recall some years where the Scott catalogue then switched
to listing entires, with a note saying cut squares were valued at 50%.
And now there's no indication of value at all.

Ryan

On 14 Jan 2007 18:55:17 -0800, "TL" wrote:

Art,
I bet it is a Lucke's Permanent Ganzsachen Album. Seems
"Ganzsachen-Teil" means "Complete Things-Part".

Art's right. Actually, I had an album a while back and it had El
Salvador cut squares and spots for them. I've also seen older albums
on eBay that included cut squares.

Art wrote:
Hi
Many, many years ago, worldwide cut squares were listed in
woldwide catalogues, such as Scott's until about 1903. I have an album
printed in Germany around 1903 that included spaces for worldwide cut
squares. Actually about one third of the album was for cut squares.
Both envelope and postal cards were collected as cut squares.
Possibly one reason for the lack of interest is no readly
available catalog or albums. H&G is curently out of date but I've heard
that it may be updated in the near future. But that will only value
entire envelopes or poatal cards.
Have fun, Art