Cut Square Cancels
Recent talk about R rated cancels (those of which 100 or fewer copies are reported) led me to remember a collection of cut squares I purchased 5 years ago. Early collectors of stamps and postmarks often used to cut stamps off of envelopes in the shape of a cut square to save space in their collection boxes. (Imagine all of the wonderful postal history covers destroyed by stamp collectors in the process.) Some collectors even went further and even cut the stamp when the dial portion of the cancel was contained on the stamp, leaving a circular cut up stamp. While this type of collecting is no longer an accepted form of collecting stamps, fortunately some of these cut stamps and squares survive today and in many cases represent some of the only know examples of some cancels.
The “cover” this month is a sheet with mounted cut squares with 23 Type 9v cancels, Registered cancels, intended to be used on envelopes and Registration paperwork and one PPO cancel, a Parcel Post Oval.
The covers on this sheet are from the period 1910-1929. These squares are a reference grouping formed from the collections of James Russell, Dr. Forest Swisher and D.C. Bartley. Most of these strikes are excellent and do indeed make ideal reference copies. On this sheet are one C rated (Scarce) cancel, one R-1 (25-100 copies), eight R-2 (10-25 copies), ten R-3 (6-10 copies) and four R-4 (5 or fewer copies). I hope you enjoy looking at these, most of us will never see full covers with Type 9v or PPO cancels from these 24 ships.
By ship, top to bottom, left to right
Petrel R-3 Wheeling R-3 Kentucky R-3 Louisiana R-3 Panther R-3
Newark R-3 Tennessee R-3 Galveston C San Francisco R-4
North Dakota R-3 Michigan R-2 Washington R-3 New Jersey R-2
New Hampshire R-2 South Carolina R-2 Georgia R-2
Minnesota R-2 Idaho R-2 Delaware R-1 Ozark R-4
Mississippi R-4 Wyoming R-3 Des Moines R-2 Ohio R-4 (per the seller, one of two reported copies)