Show Us Your Perfins....

Here is a perfin from Sydney's Vacuum Oil Co.




(images from two different stamps)
There was some discussion of the VOCo in a previous thread
https://goscf.com/t/15454&SearchTerms=vacuum

Perfins seem to turn up in singles often enough, but blocks appear less regularly. Here is a block of seven of the Cochin





Second Raja 10 Pies of 1923, with a D perfin. 'D' stood for 'Devaswom', the Cochin State temple administration. It's the commonest Cochin perfin. Here it is again on the 4 Pies of the same set



on cover



and a variant: 'KD' perfins on the litho Third Raja 6 Pies and 2¼ Anna of 1938



on cover



where the purple rubber stamp on the front of the cover reveals all:

I collect Great Britain Machin heads with perfins - and always looking for more. I've got thousands of duplicates available for 10cents each. Send an email if interested.

Sample album page:

Here are 2 scans of my oldest GB perfins. On Scotts # 17, except # 2 which I think is a #30. So these were 1855 through 1869 ish...

Front


Back


I do like # 6 which has four "H" position.

Don't generally go looking for perfins, but sometimes they find me. This one showed up today in an Austrian collection from Mr. Irishjack.



The other side is a SC#97.

Can anyone make out the Perfins ? The SON cancels are too tough for my eyes. I can see the first letter "U" and that's it.



Here is a close up of the Stamps. Also I can zoom into each individual one if that would help.



Edit- just noticed I passed 1000 Posts !! Life's little victories. Or else I post too much....

Hi stallzer, I think we've seen this one before. It's the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. Ltd

It has "U C" over "Co" with two centred dots between the you and C representing the hyphen in the company name.

Here's a tough one. I'm not even sure if it was intended to be a Perfin:



If it is of any help, the stamp is an 8c US Grant Regular Issue of 1922-25, with a New York, NY precancel.

Thanks Nigel. I think I'm going to include a "Thanks Nigel" in my signature as it would save me a lot of typing with the amount of my questions you answer for me :)

Here's another one that's found me. A USP perfin on a somewhat tired looking $1 Patrick Henry Liberty issue.

Private or US government issue?

Germany perfins:

Download both scans, then using your wheel mouse,
toggle between the two scans to see front and back
of perfin.

Counting L to R and top to bottom
stamp 12 is a blind puncture and the perfin should read MB

Slightly off topic.

If perfin is applied to an unused stamp, is the stamp still considered unused or used? I have a Netherlands stamp with perfin and full gum, wonder were it should go, to my mint stamps or to my used ones.

It is still considered unused. Perfins (Perforated initials)or SPIFS (Stamps Perforated with Initials of Firms and Societies) were used to deter stealing of Stamps. In Great Britain at one time Stamps could be redeemed for cash at the post office, but a perforated stamp had obviously been stolen so the use of perfins gave organisations better security over their postage.

stallzer

Thanks a lot for the info.

WT1.. Your perfin is a V1 pattern, "C" rating ($2.50 ish-if complete pattern which yours isn't it is missing the tops of the "V"), Vitaphone Corp., NY, NY

JamesW .. Your perfin is a U88, E rating, United States Steel Products Co.NY, NY
provate company.