Cut Sqaures

Cut Squares and Entires (the Scott “U” numbers in the catalog) have always seemed to be less popular than they should be. They have several important specialty features going for them. They are scarce, attractive, and complex. There are hundreds of major numbers, and about 95% of them sell for under a few dollars. All in all, one would think that US Cut Squares would have far more collectors than they do. The reasons for their relative unpopularity relate to two main factors: First, collectors worldwide don’t collect Cut Squares, and this impacts on the popularity of US Cut Squares around the globe. US stamps are among the most popular specialties worldwide. Indeed, after British Colonials, more collectors in countries other than the US collect United States stamps than any other specialty. This amounts to thousands of serious US collectors in Britain, Germany, and in other countries, who collect US stamps but who have no interest in US Cut Squares because they have no tradition of such collecting in their own country.

But by far the biggest reason for the relative unpopularity of Cut Squares is that the design types that determine Cut Square catalog numbers are too complex and off putting to new collectors. Very trivial differences can make a difference of thousands in price, and when you add to this that each cut square design in the classic period was issued on four or five different colored papers, you have a situation that does not attract new blood into this once esteemed area. Philately is constantly changing, and the relative nadir into which Cut Squares have plunged is a recent phenomenon.