PRIVATE PERFINS on STAMP DUTIES - CENSUS in PROGRESS

[Ross Ewington]

Perforated initials (perfins) on various Tasmanian revenues have been recorded as being used by
a number of Tasmanian-based businesses; e.g.Atlas Assurance, D.W. Murray, Liverpool London & Globe
Insurance and Royal Insurance Co., etc.

This discussion forum provides the opportunity to conduct a census of these private perfins.

You are invited to submit your images here for inclusion. I will continue to edit this first
posting to compile a listing for the different companies and overprints until we get
something that can be published at a future date in the TPS' journal "The Courier" or on the TPS
website. All contributors will be acknowledged as co-authors (unless they wish to remain anonymous).

Information on how to post images to this categories are provided from a link on the
BOARD INDEX page. You can post an image directly from your computer as an attachment
(see Upload Attachment button) or ask me for assistance.

Here is my first contribution just noted for sale by auction on eBay during December 2009.
RI Co (Royal Insurance Company) on a 1d and a horiz. pair of 1/- stamp duties.

ri perfin 1.jpg (41.09 KiB) Viewed 10098 times

and in closeup:

ri perfin closeup.jpg (53.85 KiB) Viewed 10098 times

LISTING OF PERFORATED INITIALS ON TASMANIAN REVENUE STAMPS
(Last Updated on December 11th 2009)

Catalog numbers used are from the "Handbook of Tasmanian Revenue Stamps" by W.D. Craig

Royal Insurance Company (RI Co)

Fourth Numeral Series

7.124 - 1/- green (used in 1933)

Fifth Numeral Series

7.144 - 1d blue (used in 1933)

[Ross Ewington]

Lot 279 offered by Prestige Philately in their October 3rd public auction
(estimated @ A$250)
[attachment=1]perfins on revenues prestige 1.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]perfins on revenues prestige 2.jpg[/attachment]
Direct link to auction catalog listing:
http://www.prestigephilately.com/catlot ... e=tas&lim=

[Ross Ewington]

It's been a long time since there was a post in this topic ...fortunately, the drought was broken
this afternoon with this little discovery found in the stuff I accumulate in my bottom desk drawer.

a used 9d green Platypus Craig 7.63 with LL G perfin (London Liverpool & Globe Insurance)

w526.jpg (36.74 KiB) Viewed 9836 times

[Revenuer]

Nice find Ross. We have it covered in the new Tasmania Perfin book. LL/G.a Launceston

[Geoff Dane]

LLG on 1/-

perfed revenue.jpg (106.38 KiB) Viewed 9831 times

[Geoff Dane]

MM on 1955 1d platypus

MM perfin.jpg (71.55 KiB) Viewed 9798 times

[Ross Ewington]

Nice find Geoff !

It looks like Mathews MM.7 to me. I would imagine that there is a strong possibility
that the user was Mercantile Mutual ....can you read any of the wording on the rubber datestamp?

[David Coath]

Dear Ross

Yes indeed a nice patttern. It is the HAPP ( Handbook of Australin Private Perfins - Mathews ) MM.7. As you suggest Mercantile Mutual.

In the recent Tasmanian chapter of "Revenue Perfins of Australia " that I did with Dave Elsmore we call this pattern MM.a and it is the only MM found on Tasmanian revenue or postage stamps. We say:

Device: This MM.a device was most likely located in the Hobart office as all the policy documents we have seen carrying the MM.a pattern are tied with company cachets from this office.
The device was most likely a single head device and was certainly in use between 1959 and 1966 but may have been used over a slightly longer period.
Previous studies have reported this pattern on postage stamps but we have not seen any evidence of this and these reports may be miss reports of other MM patterns. In fact at the time of the introduction of this device it may have been a company policy to not use perfins on postage stamps and only use the devices on revenues stamps. The multi head device used by Mercantile Mutual in their Sydney office is known used on revenue stamps until at least 1967, but use on postage stamps seems to have stopped around 1955.
The matter is further confused by reports in previous studies of two separate MM patterns as having been used on Tasmanian revenues. This is not supported by the evidence we have found.

In HAPP John had listed MM.6 and MM.7 (MM.a ) to have been found on Tasmanian stamps but he corrects this in the latest (Feb 2012 update) in which he attributes (I believe correctly) MM.6 to the Mercantile Mutual Melbourne office and MM.7 (MM.a) to be possibly also Mercantile Mutual. On our site Dave shows a Mercantile Mutual document carrying this pattern with addresses of the 3 Tasmanian Mercantile Mutual offices but the cachet is from Hobart. It is unquestionably a Mercantile Mutual pattern. He may wish to share it. David MacNamee has some nice examples too.

David

[David Coath]

Dear Ross

By the way I have recently written a piece on the LLG's used in Australia as the listing in HAPP is incomplete and somewhat misleading

It can be found here at Dave Elsmore's perfin site http://www.perfins.com.au/articles/llg.pdf

At the bottom of it it has some pattern refernce images that I have done.

Issues related to Tasmania are discussed in the Introduction as well as the parts on LLG.3 , LLG.9 (only because it was once considered a type of the Tasmanian pattern.3) and LLG.10. LLG.10 is not listed in HAPP although there is a image that John has made of it in circulation. He did not list it in his Feb 2012 update to HAPP but then this update did not contain any of the hundreds of new patterns that have been found since HAPP was issued in 2003. Ofcourse almost all of these new patterns are Service Punctures from Victoria and are not the same as the LLG.10 pattern which is made by a Customised device.

David