We are back to in-person meetings. In September we had a great talk by Dennis Sadowski titled “People and the Posts: Stories Behind the Mail in Early Lorain County History.”
Prior to Dennis’ program many members presented stamps and covers. The items and discussions were most interesting. Please try to attend the meetings and participate in the excitement and enjoyment.
My main collecting interest is Holy Land material. Perfins have been used on postage stamps from around the world including Palestine. The term perfin is an acronym from the words “perforated” and “initial.” An S is generally added to make the word plural.
Perfins were often punched into stamps by companies and organizations to protect their postage from fraudulent usage. Various Palestine stamps have been perforated with the initials APC for the Anglo Palestine Co., a bank established in 1902 as a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust to fund Zionist work and economic development in Palestine.
The perfins can appear in eight different positions on each of many different stamps. The varieties make for a very interesting collection especially when usages on cover are added.
Another Judaica perfin is the letter Z found on some German stamps. The Z stands for the German Zionist Organization, pre-World War I.
Philatelically yours,
Howard S. Chapman