Examples of petro-perfins:
Perfins are stamps that have been hole-punched
(pin-perforated) through the design. Pin-perforating
can be done privately as in the case of the Egyptian
stamps shown above that have the initials "V O Co.",
of the Vacuum Oil Co. (part of the Socony-Mobil
group). Perfins such as these were produced as
security devices to discourage stealing of clearly
identifiable postage stamps from the workplace.
Many different oil companies produced pin-perforated stamps
and these are easiest to identify on covers with the company
name as in the example above from the Standard Oil Co.
Some companies even include coded holes that relate to the exact company
office location. The enlarged example of the stamp from the cover above
shows the "SO" perfin indicating Standard Oil and has a precancelled
stamp from Billings, Montana. Note the extra hole inside the "O"
(it
shows up in the "G" of Billings)—the position of that hole
varies with
different offices and is a key to identifying the exact source of the stamp.
Other perfins are produced by government agencies, again to thwart theft
of stamps. These
examples show perfin versions of a Venezuelan petro-stamp with the
initials
"G.N" (Gobierno Nacional - National Government).
Pin perforations can also be used to deface stamps or mark them as invalid
for postal use. This is an example of a "MUESTRA" (specimen) pin
perforation on a trial proof for a Mexican petroelum production tax
stamp.
© Peter A. Scholle, 2000
Main Petroleum Stamps Page —— Scholle personal —— Scholle home page —— NM Bureau staff page —— NM Bureau main page