Perfins - Stamps with Perforated Initials (get it?)


Company and government employees throughout the world have a long history of pilfering office supplies from their employers.  It's probably been happening for hundreds if not thousands of years, and it's probably still happening today.
Theft of employer-owned stamps has always been popular because the thieves could then use them as "free" postage on their personal mail.  But theft of company-owned stamps was a particularly common practice in the 1800s, because stamps were also sometimes accepted as payment for small purchases.  CEOs throughout the world shook their heads, trying to think of something they could do to curb or reduce this practice.

Clever British executives came up with the idea to stock stamps that are commonly known as "perfins" - an abbreviation for "perforated initials" - as a way of indicating that their companies (and not their employees) bought and owned those stamps.  Perfins utilize small perforations right in the face of the stamps to make a set of initials identified with their rightful corporate owners.  If perfin stamps were used by employees on their personal mail or to make small purchases they were immediately recognizable as being stolen property.

Perfins were first authorized for use by Great Britain in 1868.  It took 40 more years for the light to dawn in the USA, and perfin stamps were not introduced here until 1908.  You don't see anywhere near as many now as in the old days, but perfin collections make a nice specialty stamp collection.