Does Anyone Here Collect Stamps On Piece?

Thank you John for asking me to share.

The last picture is of one of two Helbock Scarcity 8 on-piece that I found! Four months ago ... I had not even heard of Scarcity indexes, straight line cancels, even appreciating manuscript cancels. I have learned soooo very much and appreciate being asked to share.

Thanks again!

Mitch

The range, scope and possibilities for topical collections, collection organization and areas of interest is truly phenomenal.

It is an interesting dilemma; in terms of postal history these fall between 'just a stamp' and a 'cover'.

I have a few pages of these that have crossed my desk over the years but I have never sought them out. I also have a binder full of Vario pages of 'just stamps' with fancy/interesting cancels but again not things I have sought out.

If this area of collecting were to become highly popular (easier to mount and display than covers, fewer conservation risks, etc.) some would argue that it would have a negative impact on postal history and the hobby in general. On the other hand, I have a large box of 120+ year old covers which have limited postal history value and may be good candidates for being cut down. But I have left them as full covers and will probably pass them along to another person so they can store them for a few decades like I have.

Don

Ignore the top and bottom rows of this page for this thread, but there are three rows of 3c stamps on piece in my old album. I don't have this anymore, but this was from a fairly sizable group of 3c stamps on-piece, that I purchased in the 1980s from John Salomon. I recall joking with him about - did you cut these out? - and he chuckled and said no, that the collector had.

At any rate, since the 1980s, I think this doesn't happen nearly so much, at least for classic postal history material.

I can see why a collection like this would be attractive! Less space than a big empty cover but still get to see/preserve the cancel. I don't keep a full cover unless it's got a lot of interest or if it's from someone I care about. I think what makes a collection interesting is what makes it personal, not so much what makes it monetarily valuable.

True, but part of the hobby is also about good stewardship and conservation of the material we temporarily process.
Don

To generalize, the trimming shown on this thread so far has destroyed about 95% of the monetary value of what the full covers likely had. Knowing this, I would urge collectors to save philatelic items in the largest format they have space to store it in. Be slow to cut down covers thereby reducing postal history into just a cancel collection.

Once the stamp is clipped from the envelope, everything we may have known about its postal history is lost, except for (at best) the time and location of its cancellation.

At the same time, none of us saves every single piece of mail we ever got just for the sake of history. If we did we would live in mountains of increasingly valueless piles of paper on every flat serface in the house. I'm sure that whoever took the time to cut them out over the years was collecting for their own personal reasons instead of just tossing it all in the trash. I'm glad that the pieces are more then just the stamps, which they easily could have been. I think ithey are interesting and attractive collections. Are they "worth" as much as a complete piece? Maybe not. And it might not be the approved best practice for covers but what's done is done, and it's easy to display and is certainly worth having and enjoying.

Great discussion and honestly everyone is right about most of what was said.

It comes down to:

1) Best-->Covers: Great fun! Lots of history, has the date/cancel/town to and from, has the special markings, the fancy cancels and the stamps etc.

2) Next best---On Piece: Gives the from date/town cancel as well as stamp and fancy cancel.

3) Good--Just the stamp: MILLIONS soaked off of great covers over the years. But still fun and contain many rarities etc.

Bottom line: All are valuable, collectable and fun!

Also ... one last note and just interesting. The pictures of those on-piece (I could have sent much more) were sent to the same company in Mass. I assume that the receiving clerk at that company cut the corners off of all of the covers as they came into the company from all over the US.

How do u know ... u ask. Well I don't know 100% but on most/ALL of the ones that had partial address and wonky written address next to stamp or irregular cut on piece... had the following company for the to address:

H.W. Smith Manufacturing Company
Box 509 (sometimes Box 1264)
Worcester, Mass

I tried to research that company and find out what they made and why they received so many orders from across the US but the best I could come up with is some kind of fabric?

(the above is just an FYI/interesting--- that even though the on piece did not always have much or all or partial address, I was able to piece together (ex-Navy crpto guy) the "who" was getting most/all of the letter traffic).

So if any of you can add to that company's story ... let me know

Value is in the eye of the beholder. Seems like it would be easier than collecting town precancels and you get to "visit" places all over the country!

The tragedy of a cut square is we do not see the whole story behind the journey this stamp took. Many a used common stamp today would be much more interesting and valuable if they remained on a complete cover. Sad.

While I have my own collecting preferences, I try to not 'throw shade' on how (or what) anyone else collects.
Don