Perforated Gm Mark On German Stamp

Hi all, New Guy here. Having found my childhood collection, after 55 years, I am now retired and have time to rediscover stamps. I have this Deutsches Reich Red 10pf stamp with the perforated Gm mark. I can not find what the perforated mark means. Anyone know? I have a few others similar but this is the only one with the perforations. I can find nothing on-line about it.

Stamps with holes like this are called perfins (perforated initials or insignia). It's an interesting collecting area (enthusiasts would say, fascinating). In use since the mid-19th century, the idea was/is to punch the stamp to discourage theft or otherwise keep them from misuse.

I'm sure someone here has a catalog of German perfins that could help you narrow down what company or organization might have used Gm. Also check https://www.arge-lochungen.de/ and https://www.perfins.org/perfin-cata...-by-country/

Or post on this thread by Postmaster GS, though he might see this topic first:
https://goscf.com/t/48638

back, DW11bc,

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences. Russ

This perfin was used in Berlin by the Verain Deutscher Zeitungs-Verleger (association of German newspaper publishers) and Germania AG (publishing house and printer).

Welcome!

Dale

Wow, who knew? It seems you all did! Thanks very much for the info, new reference points and for the welcome. I had no idea that your were all out there! Also did not realise that Perfins would be a whole new branch of stamp collecting and knowledge to me. Thanks again. DW

postmasterGS ... It's always difficult to tell, which user in the catalog is the right one. In this case (both Berlin) it's more likely "Germania AG", because of the letters. If there is only one year mentioned, it's often a single usage by some company in the same house or a department of the company.

Heck, there are as many branches of collecting as there are collectors out there. :) It's often harder to decide where to draw the line than to find more and interesting ways to look at what you have. :)
That particular design came out in 1902 and was in use until around the end of the war. Yours is likely from the paper type they started using in 1905, since it looks as if the cancel is either 1908 or 1918. Someone else here could chime in with where it was cancelled (I can read "N, C." at the top and "3" at the bottom, so likely a larger office). Posted in the afternoon, 4-5 PM.

The postmark is BERLIN, C.

I found the connection between the two users in an old Berlin address book. Carl Müller used to be Deputy Chairman for Verein Deutscher Zeitungs-Verleger and was CEO for Germania as well. So he used the stamps from one company for the other ...

And the postoffice C2 in Berlin is mentioned, too.

Folks, I just can not believe that you can find out all this information just from an old stamp. Incredible, I clearly have a lot to learn.

No one was able to tell me what the guy at the post office had for his lunch that day. Very disappointing!!!

Sausage & kraut, I expect... :)