Halloween Diecut Quiz

Sane Halloween Observer

Here's a bit of fun for both newbie and seasoned collectors? Look at this selection of lanterns, candy packages, toys, and more. Can you name which of these is a diecut?

Now that you've looked them over, do you have your answer? Well, before you read onward for the solution, can you say for certain what a diecut is exactly?

While not technically incorrect, the terminology "diecut" seems to be used without much understanding by many folks in the Halloween community as a word generalizing a certain range of flat 2-D hanging decorations. It is interesting to see how many mis-understand what diecut really means. This is most obvious when a remnant shows up at auction and is called a diecut. Or a long-time seller lists an item with sloppy hand-cut edges claiming it must have been a bad day at the factory. While the first instance is still a diecut (just referenced incorrectly), a ragged hand-cut edge on anything is not. 

Die-cutting is an industrial machine process that, in tremendous assembly-line quantity, created a large variety of Halloween products, all in the same cookie-cutter shape --- paper lanterns, cardboard box displays, on and on..., as well as that outer line of tissue paper pumpkins that expand into three dimensions, and metal objects. (See this wikipedia article).

So the answer is? Quite possibly every piece of what you see pictured above!