Several generations of stamp collectors have been "educated" that stamps with holes in them were "damaged". I remember on many occasions being told that "those stamps with holes in them - those so-called perfins" were damaged stamps, and should be weeded out of my collection and destroyed. Today, perfin collecting is one of several major alternatives pursued by thousands of collectors. Recent auction prices indicate that those pursuing such alternative collecting habits have deep pockets, too!
The term "perfin" is an acronym for "perforated initials". Another term, used widely in Europe, is SPIF - "Stamps Perforated for Individuals or Firms". Perfins, then, are stamps that have had holes punched in them for the name of a company, for a particular government office, or for an individual, to indicate the ownership of the stamps.
One major reason perfins were created was to cut down on employee pilfering. Another reason was that perfins were a form of subtle advertising. Government offices punched holes in stamps to indicate the mail franked by them was "official" in nature. Many countries used perforated initials to indicate government use - the OHMS (On His/Her Majesty's Service) perforations of Canada, the OS (Official Service) perforations for Australia (and many, many others!), HMSO (His/Her Majesty's Stationery Office) of Great Britain, and the GN (Gobierno National) punches on stamps of Venezuela are only a few of hundreds of examples.
Perfins can be collected as individual stamps, but perfins still on the original envelope, especially those on business envelopes with the business logo and address, command a premium. There is a perfin society that has several thousand members, and numerous clubs for perfin collectors. Trading, buying and selling, and displays are all common among perfin collectors.
Some very excellent sites are online discussing Perfins, including Toke Norby's site in Denmark, and Michael Behm's excellent site on Canadian perfins of the Victorian era. The largest club for perfin collectors is the Perfin Society of Great Britain.
Another major alternative collecting group are collectors who collect precancelled stamps. Precancelling dates back to the 1890's, and covers a number of different countries. There are precancelled stamps readily available from Canada, the United States, Belgium, and several other countries. The United States and Canada dominate precancel collecting, however, because the material is so readily available, and the literature is extensive. There are more than 50,000 precancel collectors worldwide, and a large number of organizations and clubs. The most prominent group in the United States is the
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