PERFINS AND OVERPRINTS

Great Eastern Railway				W.H.Smith & Son

The few users of official underprints, and a good many of those using unofficial underprints, went on to use perfins.

An intrigueing use of perfin was that used by the firm Copestake, Moore, Crampton & Co, who at the time were largest user of underprinted stamps. Their underprinted stamps occasionally turn up with the perfin design "C/(box)/HC", but the reason for this perfin is not known. At one time it was speculated that the company name change to Copestake, Hughes, Crampton and that the box was intended to obscure the name 'Moore'. However, the box does a better job of obliterating the name 'Crampton'.

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BJ/&B - Bayliss, Jones and Bayliss

From 1880, postage stamps served a dual purpose in that they could also be used to pay a tax on reciepts. Many firms overprinted their postage stamps specifically for this purpose. The overprinting would make them invalid postally and hence many of these firms also maintained supplied of perfinned stamps.

Why a company should use seperate perfins and overprints simultaneously I do not know. Perhaps it was for some accountancy reasons ?

Corporation of Shefield

The overprinted stamps intended for reciept use can themselves be found perfinned, although these are quiet rare. These probably come about through a sheet of oveprinted stamps being perfinned accidentally whilst sheets of un-overprinted stamps were being perforated.