First Os Find For Me

I was surprised to find this and add to my collection!

The OS perfins are an intriguing collecting area.

Sadly the market has been distorted by skilful fakes (I do not suspect yours is). You cannot get certificates for rare ones.

Tread carefully but enjoy the search.

'OS' was a contraction of 'O.H.M.S.' (On His/Her Majesty's Service) and was used on official Government mail. The reason you will see many of these on poorly centred stamps is that the printers would send rejected sheets for Government use.

I agree with 64idgaf, though I have seen certified papers for certain "O S" perfins.

Thank you and it's a shame that certification is not likely to be attained. Nevertheless, I shall display my specimen in a place of honor.

While there'e plenty of forgeries out there, the lower the catalogue price, the less likely the forgery, as a general rule of thumb.

Are the Australian OS really that rare?
I got hundreds, and don't know what to do with them.

For perfin forgeries I have a hint to identify those.
Take a close look at the holes, the stamp ink has to color the inside of the hole.
If they were perforated later, the edge is clean.

Hi tommtomm,

It is not the stamp ink that is checked for being inside the holes, but the ink from the cancel. The holes were punched after the stamp was printed and before its usage.

- stamporator -

@stamporator

As I'm not an English native speaker, I thought that "stamp ink" was the right term for it.
Sorry, if I was misunderstood, of course I meant the "cancellation ink", that should touch the inside of the holes in the cancelling process at the post office.

But wouldn't be printing the stamp's front after perforation a silly idea?

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By the way ... I probably should get more into Australian official perfins. As I wrote, I have no deeper knowledge about those, I'm just collecting them by issue.

It's a big field tommtomm, especially in the Australian Colonies