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Why Not Collect
Perfins?
If you are tired of “routine” stamp collecting—the rut that has you filling
up the same blank spots in the same printed albums as everyone else—why not
collect PERFINS? The word PERFIN comes from PERforated INSignia. Perfins
originated in Great Britain in the 1860’s and were authorized for use on U.S.
stamps on May 8, 1908.
PERFINS are stamps that have been perforated with designs, initials, or numerals
by private business and governmental agencies to discourage theft and misuse.
Perfins have appeared on postal paper of more than 200 nations. In the United
States alone, more than 6,400 patterns are known to have been used. The number
of patterns used around the world exceeds 50,000; 40,000 of which are between
Great Britain and Germany.
These stamps offer a fertile field for philatelic investigation. It is a field
that is almost unlimited in scope, and it is richly rewarding to the collector
who is not satisfied to collect by the catalog or by merely filling up blank
spaces in a printed album. Perfin collecting is largely unexplored; there is so
much that is not known about perfins that almost every mixture or box of covers
is likely to yield a new chapter in the literature of perfins.
It is easy to obtain perfins. Many of your collector friends will give you their
perfins rather than throw them away. To many collectors, a perfin is a damaged
stamp or at best a space filler to be discarded when a “whole” stamp is found.
Dealers often will toss perfins into a box under the counter and sell them to
the first collector who will make any decent offer.
But before you begin collecting perfins, you must face the fact that you will,
in general, be collecting for fun and not for profit. A collector who looks on
perfins as an investment is bound to be disappointed. While some fine perfins
command a premium, this is the exception rather than the rule. Perfin collectors
collect stamps and study them; they do not consider their stamps financial
ventures.
There are many ways to collect perfins. One can collect by type; that is, one
can arrange to get one example of each perfin pattern without regard to the face
value of the stamp. Or one can collect by issue—trying to get an example of each
pattern on each stamp. However, considering the number of stamps that have been
issued in the United States since 1908 and the fact that there are 6,400+ U.S.
perfin patterns, one best have a large supply of binders to hold a collection.
Many perfin collectors collect only covers. It is possible to trace the entire
financial history of a business firm by watching the change in corner cards
during the years a perfin was in use.
Some collectors collect by topic: perfins issued by banks, by automobile
companies, by schools, or by insurance companies. For example, nearly 200 U.S.
railroads used perfins and railroad perfins is a popular topic.
Once you have a few perfins on hand, you must identify and mount them into a
collection. Identification can be challenging. Suppose you have a stamp with a
“PSC” perfin pattern. Does that stand for Public Service Commission or does it
stand for Penn State College or even Pressed Steel Company? It could be any one
of these since all these firms have used “PSC” to mark their stamps.
But that’s where the Perfins Club, Inc. (Club) comes in. The Club is an
organization of 500+ collectors of perfins who have compiled a massive amount of
information about U.S. and foreign perfins.
The Club has published an illustrated catalog of United States perfins that
lists each of the known U.S. perfins, identifies the users of most, and provides
exact size illustrations of the vast majority of the known patterns.
The Club has also published several catalogs of foreign perfins and members are
currently researching the information that will lead to the publication of a
complete set of catalogs of the world’s perfins. One element of this is the
World Perfin Catalog covering those countries that have few perfins.
The Perfins Bulletin, published five times a year, relays to the Club’s
membership the newest perfin research information and also provides a means for
the members to keep in touch with each other. In addition, the membership relies
heavily on personal correspondence to foster a spirit of cooperation and
fraternity.
2009 Rev.
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