Australian Officials With Perforated Initials

I had an envelope of these items and have finally managed to get around to sorting them according to Scott catalogue numbers for the stamps, at least. Similar to Canada which has the 4 and 5 hole perfs for the OHMS officials, there does appear to be a variation in the size of the OS perfin and variations in the NSW/OS perfin for New South Wales. That one, I assume is similar to the PS perfin which the Province of Saskatchewan uses as an "official".

Scott does list Officials, of course, but only the overprints and it is the only catalogue I have easy access to. Can anyone give the the title of a catalogue listing these, or the name of a website I can refer to?

And as an aside, the Canadian perforated initials are becoming increasingly subject to forgery, particularily to 5 hole varieties. Is there a similar problem cropping up with Australian officials?

Gibbons Part 1 lists the Federal OS perfins, and yes: I gather there's a thriving industry enhancing un-perfinned earlier Australian stamps ...

Here is a First Watermark 4d orange 'Roo with the large OS perfin on a rather well-travelled Western Australian (are you paying attention, Rod222?) cover:



which is sitting in my retirement fund

And although I don't collect Australia - I just live in it - this has to be a very strong argument against soaking stamps off their covers. Which would look more interesting? The loose stamp, or the intact cover?

Yes I am,
and that is one beautiful cover,
The auxilliary markings are superb!

Google doesn't list a commercial road, south freo (Home of the dockers!)
I'll have to punch it into my GPS.

I shall continue to drool quietly. It brings to mind the possibility of admiral 5 hole OHMS covers but I cannot claim to ever having held one in my hot little hands.

And I did not realize that Stanley Gibbons recognized perforated officials! I'm sure I can locate one of those somewhere about. Thanks for the suggestion.

Peter,

Glad the scans reached you.

To the O.P., very nice lot!

Thought I had a few more tucked away in the Old Oak Chest:



Probably SG O106 (the 3d OS perfin) and SG O130 (the 2 OS overprint), and



SG O98 - nothing very much, but I bought it because it's addressed to my local (and in those days notoriously corrupt) council. It simply acknowledges receipt of the 1927 annual reports of the Council Medical Officer of Health.

Nice collection. I have a Perforated postal card, will post this evening when I get home (5-6 hours from now).
It came from a large auction house, so as far as I know it is real. Who knows, don't feel like paying to have it authenticated (I'm cheap). Anyway, nice collection. Might be able to help you out with more if you so desire. Contact me off group via email.

As promised. Here are two scans of the same item, one whole, one close up of a perfinned postal stationery item from Australia. It was sent be the Government Printing Office, Sydney with OS/NSW perfinned on the card and uprated with a G/NSW stamp. Enjoy...









Whereas, neither the postal card nor the stamp are officially "official" items, the official perfinned usage of both by default put them into that catagory.

Very nice! I haven't the faintest idea of the rarity of perfinned postal stationery, but I can't believe it's all that common.

And despite the inscription at the bottom of the card, Wollongong was still very much within the British Empire. (I have fond memories of visiting an aged aunt there in the 1950s. One could still take a steam train down from Sydney as I recall.) The additional ½d would have been for War Tax, introduced in 1941.

Nice
"posted in country box" machine cancel.
I'll have to snaffle that image.

These aren't listed in Scott, but if you don't have Gibbons, you can get a good idea of their value from the price list here:

http://www.stampsaustralia.com.au/O...rf_OS_Issues

Some seem to be very rare.

Your Australian Postcard is PC31 1938
KG6 1.5d brown/ivory

1990 CV $30 unused $15 used.

I am not aware of a premium on official perfined pC's
but I would suggest there would be.

There is. Thanks for the info.

Refreshing an old posting, if for no other reason to show that I searched the site before asking my question here!!!

Found the attached from South Australia, and it was not listed in Scott-- where it says that the perfin Officials are listed in the Specialized, and it is also not listed in my 2016 Scott Specialized 1840-1940. Also not listed in SG that I could find. No listings for perfin officials for South Australia.

From reading the other posts, it looks like it's a counterfeit, but thought I'd post this, to see if Rod or any of our other friends "Down Under" have seen this one...looking at it, the perfin holes at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock on the "O", look out of place compared with the others.

Thanks in advance for your help, folks! Ray