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Posted By: E, Daniel

Hi Dave,

When people reference hand-cut card issues it's strictly in relation to cards that were distributed to the public in strips......from which point joe public was free to cut them up at home - or not. And as Joe tended not to have a guillotine in the kitchen, scissors/knife were the tools of choice, often leaving wavy imperfect cuts, notches, and uneven borders.

So whatever the cutting machine/process used to seperate cards from sheets in the 19th or early 20th century, if those cards were then distributed
individually they are considered 'factory cut' and not 'hand cut'.

Hope that helps some.


Daniel



Edited to add: Even where you find very nicely cut strip cards that were either done contemperaneously shortly after manufacture, or more recently, the cards were distributed to the public as strips and can therefore only be considered 'hand cut'.