Cut Squares (Or Pse's?) Info Please :)

Hi everyone, my apologies in advance if these pieces have been discussed throughout other threads. I've found these and any links/info would be appreciated as always. :) ~Ash

Wow...elevating "cut to shape" to a whole new level...

Collectors outside the U.S. don't even like cut squares, generally speaking...I think cut to shape is frowned upon almost universally.

But as long as you aren't trying to sell, so what? If you like 'em, they're great.

Hahaha! I was reading into "close cutting" and I should have used the term "CLOSE cut "Squares" " in the topic instead! Not looking for value as much as just links to read up on catalogue #'s, time periods, etc. etc. I have several Canadian pieces here I managed to find in the catalogue, but nothing for the US/world pieces. I like them, I will keep them, just want to know where to put them! No...not the trash! I think I may be a hoarder :/

The U.S. items will be shown in the back of the U.S. listings in Scott. None of the rest of the cut items appear in Scott.

I'd keep them together with their respective countries, where they add some interesting variety. Though the British Guiana examples pretty much share a design with the true postage stamps, the Trinidads do not. In fact, Edward VII didn't appear on a Trinidad stamp. So, variety.

The postmarks give you a pretty good idea of the respective eras, when the time comes to really sort any one country.

T

Thanks Cjd!! I look more into them :) ~Ash

I especially like the scan of the US flag cancels. The next to the last one (I believe 02/27/1898) in an oval from Boston, Mass. with a flag cancel looks to be one the scarcer varieties. Perhaps someone who knows more about them can chime in on that, but that one is a rather early example of a flag cancel.

Backing up to your first scan with cancel from Orient, Maine, I can't see a lot of detail to tell what die may have been used, but here's a recent link that shows some variations:

https://goscf.com/t/14268

Although none are thought to be worth much monetarily, they certainly do make a nice display of "back of the book" material.

That was the post that inspired me to put these up :)

None of those flag cancels are scarce varieties. There are about 7500 different US machine flag cancels. They are collected on full cover or card. You should be happy they are not expensive ones. By cutting them into shape, they would have been changed from scarce/valuable to scarce/NOTvaluable.