Cut Square Size

i like it

Regarding the above post by rod222: What makes those worth $75,000?
Or are you saying they are just part of a larger collection worth that price?

In patrolling around the various stamp venues on the Internet, I don't see these too often. Is there a pretty small collector base? Also many that I have seen are for sale at fire-sale prices.

I kind of like them too. I have several that are "ovals". I like to think of them as tokens of a by-gone era in stamp collecting.

It was on ebay Nutmeg,
Several volumes of stamps
asking $75000 for the complete collection.

Thanks for the reply rod222.

Here's a few more. I'm told that pre 1940 ... you should be very cautious about cutting down, because there is not just die to consider, but watermarks and knifecuts on the different size envelopes. The color of the stationary is another indication.

Arriving late on the scene. But, as they say... It seems that some of the original questions were not answered.

In decreasing order of value/attractiveness:

1. Entire envelope
2. Full corner (make the "cut" margins equal to manufactured margins)
3. Cut square (balanced margins >.25" best)
4. Cut to shape

Doesn't matter what size envelope the cut squares come from.

The Scott catalog numbering system is at the "cut square" level (Die type, surcharge, and paper color).

The UPSS catalog numbering system covers the entire envelope: die type, tagging, surcharge, paper color, paper quality, knife (which gives you size), watermark, gum attributes, paper varieties, and other attributes here and there. They also get into multiple die varieties on many issues.

We like regurgitated posts here Thomas.
especially with new information.

I was just reading this post for the first time and do not seem to see anyone who quoted Scott Specialized definition of a cut square, so I'll post it now:




A lot of the earlier cut squares were intentionally cut "short" because album pages of that day did not accommodate the 1/4 inch margins on all sides, which is why some latitude is given to the older (19th century) cut square sizes as opposed to the modern 20th century counterparts.