Thanks Johnny.
I'm not real sure about the hand cutting of the cards, since these would have been in stacks of sheets and possibly cut using this type of antique paper cutter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzONshsEiTE
When I worked in offset sheetfed printing the cutters were like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm_2Cmb9iPk Large stacks of printed sheets being cut to remove the bleeds and make the white borders. The computerized machines would keep the miscuts to a minimal, while the old machines would allow for "out of center" cuts.
(edit) and please don't feel that I don't think that some were hand cut. I am sure that happened, since I did the same thing myself! I do also believe that the rarity of these cards will become highly coveted. These cards are the very first printed and almost all would have been destroyed by the printer. Good luck with these cards, they are very unique in my opinion. Being a former printer, I have a love for misprints and printing errors.