Perfin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A perfin (a contraction of 'PERForated INitials'), also called SPIFS (a contraction of 'Stamps Perforated by Initials of Firms and Society's'), is a pattern of tiny holes punched through a postage stamp. Organizations used perforating machines to make perforations forming letters or designs in postage stamps with the purpose of preventing pilferage. The size and number of perfins is usually regulated by law or postal regulation in the relevant country.
Great Britain was the first country to use perfins in 1868. They are still used there and in a few other countries, although their use has declined dramatically since the introduction of franking machines. In Britain unused postage stamps could be redeemed for cash at the post office but a perforated stamp had obviously been stolen so the use of perfins gave organisations better security over their postage before franking machines became popular.
A number of countries perforated stamps as a means to denote official mail. For example in 1906 the Cape of Good Hope Government Printing and Stationery Department adopted a system of perforating in connection with the stamps used by their Department for Foreign Mail matter. The stamps [1] were perforated by a machine, consisting of eleven round holes, in the form of two triangles, having their common apexes meeting in the hole at the centre of the stamp.
[edit] Collecting perfins
Formerly considered damaged and not worth collecting, perforated postage stamps are now highly sought by specialist stamp collectors. It is often difficult to identify the originating uses of individual perfins because there are usually no identifying features, e.g., Kodak used a simple K as their perfin, but on its own a stamp perforated K could have been used by several other users. A K perfin still affixed to a cover that has some company identifying feature, like the company name, address, or even a postmark or cancellation of a known town where the company had offices, enhances such a perfin.
