IDENTS

Well, I did promise you "obvious" ! However, not every firm used pre-printed envelopes and more often than not examples of perfin covers have no sign of a company name.

Postcards are another common source of idents. When the above card was sent in 1906, a normal letter would have required 1d postage. However, postcards could be sent at half the normal rate and hence it made sense for firms to use pre-printed postcards for standard uses. The above example is acknowledging the reciept of an order for Cider (Jonz favourite tipple :-)

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Perfin "H&S"

As well as postally used examples, many perfin idents come from usage on reciepts. Sometimes these receipts include an attractive and very ornate engraved letterhead, such as that shown above. The perfin "H&S" is shown to belong to the company Hill & Smith of Brierly Hill (just a few miles from where I live!).

There can be more to identified covers than just identifying the owner as illustrated in the above three strips. The first strip shows the perfin die "WAS/&Co" used in January 1941. However the second strip from six months later shows the same company, operating from a temporary premisis and using the provisional perfin "S". This change was almost certainly as a result of their premisis being bombed during World War 2. The final strip from November 1945 shows their return to London, albeit at a different location and a return to the use of the perfin "WAS/&Co". Whilst the die on first inspection appears the same as their first die, it is different to their original (most noticable in the spacing of the two rows of the perfin design).