The Perforation of Stamps

[gabriel 1 11]

Hi

 

This is aimed at all our new collectors for their info

 

Perforation denotes a series or row of round or other shaped holes, punched out between the stamps in a sheet or coil strip of stamps to facilitate partition, seperation or division.

 

The 3 basic types of perforation can be distiguished by the way the pins are placed on the plate.

 

Line Perforation

The pins are placed in a single row. The sheet of stamps is punched row after row first horizontally and then vertically, by turning the sheet 90 degrees. The punch-holes at the corners are not aligned, so that uneven corners are normally obtained.

 

 

Comb Perforation

The pins are placed comb-like, one horizontal row across the sheet of stamps and vertical rows of pins adjoining to the horizontal row between all the stamps of a single row of stamps. Horizontal and vertical rows of holes, eg three sides of the stamp, are pressed in one process, row after row, until the whole sheet is done.

 

 

Harrow perforation

All punches for a whole sheet of stamps are placed on to the plate, eg all four sides of a stamp are perforated in one process. Stamps perforated by comb or harrow type can hardly be distinguised, as the corner punches of both types are equally neat.

 

 

Stamps are perforated to facilitate easy seperation from a sheet of stamps. Certainly the number of punch holes is an important factor to be considered by the authorities. The paper strength, thickness, climate, etc determines the number of holes which should be punched. Too many holes cause the stamps to seperate too easily from the sheet, on the other hand stamps are easily damaged if too few holes are present between the stamps.

 

Sometimes the perforation is changed, while the printed stamp remains identical otherwise. The collector, wanting to distinguish the perforation, could count the holes, but this is rather unscientific and could cause problems with changing stamp size.

 

Dr JA Legrand invented the perforation gauge to measure the number of holes or teeth to 2 centimetres. A perforation 11 thus means that there are 11 holes or teeth to 2cm.

 

 

Taken from the Philatelist April 1984

 

Regards

Gabriel1

[dstorm 10]

Hello Gabriel1

 

Thanks for a very interesting post.

 

Line Perforation must be one of the most misunderstood terms in philately. Just look at the image below. Being Line Perf, the perforations on this block are 100% fine. Yet it might appear to the novice as having a couple of short corners! But the perforations in the centre should explain it all.

 

Regards

 

Jacques

[Kit W 10]

Hi Gabriel & Jacques

 

Thanks for the interesting post - I have often wondered how the "imperfs" come about and manage to slip through the eagle-eyes of the "examiners". I guess when absolute tons of stamps are being printed, or even coins minted, you are bound to have certain abnormalities - makes life interesting for the collectors!!!

 

Regards

 

Kit W

[2dblue 10]

Hi Guys

 

One of the strange things i have learnt about perfs is to remember that comb perfs. are like combing your hair. the perfs. are neat and in line.

 

If you look at the stamp and rule a line across it the perf. holes on opposite sides tend to be quite in line and neat. Line perfs. tend to not meet this.

 

Rgds

 

Colin