Treasury tags are a quick and easy way to file documents and are often required by students at schools, colleges and universities to bind assignments together.

What is a Treasury tag?

Treasury tags, or India tags, are tags used to hold documents together. Each consists of two rigid metal or plastic bars joined together from their middle by a piece of cord, typically one to three inches long. The tag is fed through punched holes of documents, the bars held horizontally against the paper keeping the documents from separating. The cord is sometimes elastic, allowing for varied thicknesses of grouped papers.

The earliest citation in the OED for 'Treasury tags' is from a 1912 list of articles authorised to be supplied by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. '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 capitalised, it probably refers to HM Treasury; in the same vein 'India' may refer to the India Office. The 1912 citation would then refer to filing tags popular in each office.

Lengths of Treasury tags

Choose a tag long enough to accommodate the width of documents but not so long as to allow the paper to become sprawled out and untidy.