SECURITY ENDORSEMENTS

From the very first days of the postage stamp it became common for small accounts to be paid using mint postage stamps. However this often lead to petty pilfering of stamps and as a response to this various firms attempted to mark their stamps.

J.B.&Co.		NOVELLI & CO / MANCHESTER

The first form of security endorsements applied to British postage stamps took the form of embossing. This form of unofficial endorsement marks the first ever attemps at private security endorsements.

A number of firms overprinted their supplies of revenue stamps. Then, in 1859, the Post Office authorised the Oxford Union Society to overprint their stocks of postage stamps, making this the first official form of secruity endorsement. A few firms also copied this idea, although their attempts were unofficial.

However, well over 50 firms unofficially underprinted their stamps, usually in black ink but occasionally in red. These were printed over the gum and hence used examples tend to only show faint remains of the underprint.

Officially underprinted stamps appeared in 1867 and were undertaken by the stamp printers themselves. The underprint was printed in the stamps colour before the sheet was gummed. In 1869 the Oxford Union Society was instructed by the Post Office to transfer its overprint to the back of the stamp.

In 1858 a Mr. Joseph Sloper, as inventor and patentee of the orgional principle of perforating stamps and documents, formed a buisness. However it was not until 1868 that, after much persuasion, the Post Office finally gave permission for him to perforate normal postage stamps. At this point, the " Perfin" (PERForatedINitials) was born, a security endorsement method that it still used today.