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About Treasury Tags

What is a Treasury tag?

Treasury tags, also known as India tags, are traditional stationery items used to fasten sheets of paper to each other or to a folder. They consist of a piece of string, more commonly green cotton cord, typically around 25mm to 152mm long, both ends are held in the centre of a metal or plastic bar. Treasury tags are designed to be threaded through holes in paper which have been typically made by a hole punch.

The earliest reference in the Oxford English Dictionary for 'Treasury tags' is from a 1912 list of articles authorised to be supplied by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO). 'India tags' are also mentioned in the same list, though differentiated ('cross-bar' as opposed to 'insertion' of Treasury tags). It is difficult to ascertain the origin of the terms but since 'Treasury' is commonly captialised, it probably refers to HM Treasury; in the same vein 'India' may refer to the India Office (a department of the British Government which dealt with Indian affairs). The 1912 reference would then refer to filing tags popular in each office.

 

Lengths of Treasury tags

Treasury tags of different lengths are designed for paper of different quantities or thickness. Choose a tag long enough to accommodate the width of the documents but not so long as to allow the paper to become sprawled out and untidy. Use this guide to help:


Tip - When punching holes for your Treasury tags, make sure that they are at the left hand side of the report and that they are at least 25mm into the paper, both from the top and the left. This is important as in time, your sheets will soon become detached and your report unmanageable. For larger documents, punch an extra hole at the bottom or use a 4-hole punch.

The Treasury tag method is perfect for you when you are likely to making amendments or adding additional documents such as graphs or diagrams.