Perfin Research Methods ?

What are your recommendations on Perfin research; buy specialty catalogues or use websites (some have membership fees to access info or buy their catalogue)?
I want to learn more about the perfins I have from US, Great Britian, Spain, Cuba, Germany, etc. And I am sure will acquire more.

I have posted a few here on SCF and received great answers, but am finding lots more.

I look forward to your recommendations.

1. Search here for country focussed stamp Perfins.
2. Join the Perfin society.
3. Purchase dedicated catalogues (eg Australia $230)

As always, thank you Rod.

How about where to buy Perfin catalogs? Here in SCF? ebay? Amazon?
I saw one about GB on Abe books called G.B. OFFICIAL PERFINS by Edwards.Lucas

First of all try to find some online ressources. I have put some links together on (my own) perfin exchange board that could help in the beginning.

http://www.perfins-exchange.com/vie...e246d6e873cf

Many perfin clubs offer catalogs of their countries, but sometimes they are quite expensive. And for the "bigger" countries it's difficult to find cheaper used catalogs. I searched about two years until I found the printed versions of Australia and the US. So just keep looking - and good luck!

If you need some information where to get this or that european country catalog, just let me know.

For GB you shouldn't get an old catalog. This collecting field is too big and too fast developing. You can get a 3295 page PDF catalog on a memory stick from the british perfin society. Here are the details about that monster catalog:
http://www.angelfire.com/pr/perfins...t/gault.html

Much thanks Tommtomm!

I highly recommend The Perfins Club (https://www.perfins.org/).

Turtle,
good advice from those previous.



I think I have that one, just a monograph, very rarely does one encounter official perfins of GB, if so, ask here.

Two things on Germany and Austria.

The German ArGe Lochungen has decided to establish a new numbering system for their catalog. So you better wait, until the new version is out instead to try to get a - cheaper - old one. It used to be 1-ABC-10, but now they changed it to ABC-1-10-xy. The first number is for the perfin type (1= single line, 2= more than one line, 3= monograms, 4= symbols), and the last one (xy) for the different users.

And if you need an Austrian catalog, you should never choose Nussbickel. The editor of the new Austrian catalog, Gerhard Sand, proved him wrong in many cases over the last 30 years. Nussbickel sometimes just took an old telephone book and said "this or that company in Vienna is big enough, it could be the user". The new catalog lists only the confirmed users (e.g. from covers) and points out the unaudited Nussbickel information.

The sorting is quite different from the German way and Nussbickel's ... the perfin name always has the number of holes in it, which makes it very easy to find in the catalog.
Here a little explanation:

Nice commentary
Thank you.

99 Pages

Another thing, I saw an image yesterday of a Page of somewhere around 20 Forged German perfins.

Yes, you have to be careful these days - especially when it comes to very rare perfins. But on the other side there are some hints that can show you, if they are forged or not. Was the stamp used to that time, does the cancellation match with the company area, are the holes exactly punched ...

This is a very nice example of a really stupid forgery from Hungary for example. Piercing an elephant of a Berlin company into a stamp from German Southwest Africa.
But not stupid enough - it got sold on ebay for 27,- Euros!

Thank you all for the great info. Saving this thread!

Bumped Thread, Last Post 2 years ago.
Stumped.
Austria PERFIN Symbol? Monogram? Star? Snowflake?
Any help welcomed.

I don't collect perfins, but I joined The Perfins Club ( https://www.perfins.org/ ) just as a way to put the ones that I had set aside over the years into their auctions. Worked great, they ahve a fee one-yer membership, and I got $$. They have a classification system and would seem to be well-worth looking at. They seem to be very acvtive and their bimonthly bulletins are very well done.

Uhhps, I must have overlooked this one.
The "star" perfin is from Guido Rütgers, a limited commercial partnership in Vienna. But I have no idea, what the star/snowflake stands for.