Punctured Stationary?

It seems that in early years of collecting postal stationary, the usual way of "preserving" them was to puncture them and to place them in covers?

All postal cards collector which I know personally don't want even to look at a punctured postal card.

What is your opinion about them? Do those 2 holes make them worthless/spacfillers just what missing perforations do to postal stamps?

Those 2 are just as illustration on what I am talking about... they are not mine... found them on web.

P.S. multifranking with Infla stamps is not a subject of this thread... I know that those can be interesting just for the stamps... I am interested about your the idea of adding punctured postal cards to your personal collection. Yes or no? Just space-fillers or still desirable items?

Many businesses "archived" their correspondence in a standard file folder with a two prong fastener, similar to the modern one illustrated below which I cropped from an office supply website.




Eventually these items made their way into the philatelic market as a business cleaned out their archives or went out of business.

I'm not convinced it was the work of collectors - more likely to be businesses (or paricularly anal individuals) wanting to keep their correspondence in files.

I have no problem when the holes are away fron the 'stamp' and main text.A bit more problematic if they take a chunk out of the design.

I'd certaily keep them for reference, or for exhibition at local level. I suspect they would, unless very scarce, be best avoided in competitions - it's the sort of thing daft judges fulmiate against to hide the fact that they know very little about PS.

Those cards have been stored in a 2 ring binder.

Consider this: If they had not been stored like that, they may have been binned, discarded, ruined otherwise.
They have survived, the only question now is, would you be happy to have them in your own collection?
You only have to please yourself, unless you are exhibiting.

I wouldn't blink to have them myself, but I would consider them more deeply, if purchasing and the price.

Your collecting world is completely free of any boundaries, isn't that just marvelous?
Throw the shackles off, and collect what pleases you.

I have seen some blank (unused) postal cards punctured, so I suppose that those ones have not been used for business purposes (if the have stayed unused), so possibly, instead of those which have been punctured for the business archive purposes, at some point collectors also used to save them that way. Probably in minority, but some very nice unused cards I have found punctured, and didn't know to find out for myself do those holes bother me or not.

So, the general opinion is that on a major exhibition, a punctured card will be depreciated by judges, even if it will be one-of-a-kind and without stamp-design and postmark intacted?

@ Rod - I am not collecting all these stuff, but I always like to find out answers on some questions which bother me. I was curious to know are postal stationary collectors are also pedantic as the stamp ones.

If it is a postally used cover/card... I don't have a problem because I am more interested in the history of the cover/card & cancellation. Unless it is a unique stamp or use of a stamp, the cover/card is my target, not the stamps used. In fact, in recent years I have become more interested in used vs mint because postally used has history not available with mint never hinged.

I have created a separate album of self designed pages that feature stamps and covers of interest. I tend to spend more time on that, than trying to fill holes in my primary albums.

So if the holes, bother you, send them to me.

I've no problem with the holes like Rod. If I had a group of them I would store them in a notebook

I talked about these cards... they are all so interesting and unusual. For example - Danzig private card I have never seen before.

I know very little on Postal Stationery,
but I must say, these look very nice, some beautiful Postmarks to boot.
Look after them, and store them well.

Yes, Rod... they are already in quality Lindner sleeves(!) :) I have found them at local dealer's shop... 100 pieces about 10 USD in Croatian currency.

However, some of them are slightly longer (PCB and Coblenz) then the sleeves... not sure to buy another package of larger sleeves, or this way is just fine... because they are already punctured...

That was an absolute bargain filipo.
Well done you.
Most look in good order, with little damage on the corners.
To the right collector, you get your money back with one card.

As rod222 points out, the holes are part of the reason that the card survived the other ravages of time.

Lots of rude things happen to old postcards: corner bumps, folds, molds, dealer notes, scribbles ...

... the one that galls me most is trimming (eg, where one or two mm are cut off to give a 'clean' edge, precisely because the damage is subtle) ...

... the one that breaks my heart are those large black splotches on the address side of a card that remain after a card has been glued into a photo album and, then, removed.

There are many collectors (let alone exhibit judges) who would faint at holes punched in a card.

If you can't enjoy a hole-punched card, then you should avoid them.

If you can see past the holes, you can celebrate all that money you saved.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I paid $10 for 100 pieces of sleeves for keeping those postal cards, not for the postal cards :))

Postal cards themself cost me something more, of course.

The Danzig Hansa was the one which I liked the most at the first moment, but I can't find any reference about that one.

Right
I was thinking that was the bargain of the year.

2010

Rod, even the folks at the auction house don't know how to spell the word stationery!

Peter