Schermack Perfs ---Why?

I'm not fully familiar with Schermack perfs (and other private perforations). So, my question is: What really, was the purpose of these perfs? I can't say that I have any, or have seen any that were not cut apart. I have my doubts that anyone ever tried to separate them any other way. It is quite obvious that these Schermack rectangular perf types would not separate cleanly as do regular perforations. What say ye?

The arrangement/style/shape... of the perfs has more to do with the type of vending/affixing machine used by the company. The post office merely supplied the imperforate stamps; the private company would then decide what type of machine/perforation to design/use.

Here's an interesting online summary of private perfs.
http://www.1847usa.com/PrivatePerfs.htm

thanks danstamps 54, that's a great reference site.

Wouldn't the perforations be used to advance the coil in the machine. Like the holes on the edge of film being pulled through a projector (remember those?) I don't think that the perforations, as such, would be used to manually separate the stamps. I would guess that there was a knife-like blade which cut the stamp from the coil.

Quite an interesting article on private perfs. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Thanks Danstamps Nice reference article.

Thanks all.

I stumbled onto the website quite a while ago in my endless and fruitless search for information about some official/penalty covers.

Since my computer is usually handier than digging out my books, the site became a first go-to if I had a question. The articles are interesting too.

The people that developed the site sure put a lot of time and effort into it!