Is There Any Way To Tell The Difference Between Wrapper And Envelope With Cut Squares?

I bought a random collection of postal stationary, including a bunch of cut squares. How does one tell the difference between, e.g., U356 and W357, when looking at a cut square? Both manila paper, same printing.

I suspect it is a wrapper because the paper feels sort of thin and, well, cheap.

Thanks.

Don

"I suspect it is a wrapper because the paper feels sort of thin and, well, cheap."

Manila envelopes are often very thin also.

Not an absolute guarantee, but wrappers are almost always horizontally laid and envelopes are almost always diagonally laid.

If they are on wove paper, and you are lucky, maybe you can see the watermark and use its orientation to make the determination.

What is the distance from the top of the indicium to the top edge of the cut square?

Thomas,

The distance is 3 1/2 mm.

Don

Hmmm, no help there.

A typical envelope of the period has an indicium set down from the top of the envelope in the range of 4.5mm - 10mm.

Either an envelope or a wrapper could be cut short.

However, a wrapper has a lot of real estate above the indicium, so if you had a cut square with, say, a bit more than 10mm above the indicium, then you probably have a wrapper.