Imperforate Stamps From Hungary And Poland

I have dived into collecting these two countries and have noticed that some of the issues (50's onward)can be found perforate as well as imperforate.
It seems that the imperfs command a premium over the perforated stamps.
My question is this - what is the status of the imperforate stamps and how were they made available?
Were they for 'normal' postal use or were they produced as such for the collectors' market (this is not ignoring the fact that most of the stamps from the 50' through the 80's were massed produced and CTO'd for collectors).


*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

They were both valid for postage, and issued primarily to milk collectors for money. Of course, you can make the argument that almost any stamp historically, and every stamp nowadays, was issued for collector money: after all, back in the day, all you actually needed was one current definitive set.

Over the years lots of countries have regularly issued imperf versions of their stamps; I believe this practice started in France in the early part of the 20th century, and quickly spread from there. It's always been a bit of a gimmick. They were usually sold by the post office by mail to folks with standing new issue accounts. In some countries they would also be available at the philatelic counter of larger post offices. In the specific case of Hungary or Poland, they were primarily sold to overseas collectors for hard currency.

In order to obtain the imperf stamps in Poland, you HAD to be a member of the communist-controlled Polish Philatelic Association, another way of keeping tabs on the population, specifically at the height of the Cold War.

A common example often, quoted in Polish stamp literature, is the 1952 Russian Revolution set. Of the 4 stamps issued, the perf. 45+15gr was the only one available for sale at post offices, the others only available via subscription, or, as previously mentioned, for overseas hard currency.

Thanks for the insight guys, much appreciated.

And the U.S.A. seems to have jumped all the way in? Not that it hasn't done so in the past!