Commercial Overprint Society of Great Britain

Vol. 1 No. 1; July 1, 2003

Receipts

by Lawrence Armitage

The 1853 Act (17 Victoria c59) made receipts to the value of £2 or upwards liable to a stamp duty of 1d. This duty could be denoted by either an embossed stamp applied by the Stamp Office or by an adhesive stamp duly cancelled by the person attaching the stamp. The adhesive stamp was an item of value. This was particularly the case with the introduction of the dual purpose POSTAGE AND REVENUE stamp in 1881 because, before the coming of Postal Orders, the Post Office agreed to exchange stamps for cash when they were presented. To prevent pilfering, the owners of adhesive stamps sometimes devised a means of asserting their ownership of the stamps by overprinting the stamp with some form of identification such their initials, or their full name in distinctive designs. The overprints to collectors are referred as security overprints or commercial overprints.

There appears to be no record as who or what organisation was the first to apply an overprint to the fiscal stamps issued on the 10th October 1853. The earliest in my collection is the S.G.F9 1d. lilac, issued May 1860, on a document of 14 May 1864. The stamp is overprinted in red:

During the early years of overprints, objections were made about some designs where the printing encroached on the head of the Queen, thereby defacing it. The British Commercial Overprint Study Circle (now defunct) published in their Journal (July 1992, page 5), a copy of a hand-written letter (date purposely obliterated, possibly 1881+) from the Pale Ale Brewery, Maidstone to W. W. Cousins Esq., Secretary, Board of Inland Revenue, Somerset House, London:

In 1859 the Oxford Union Society unofficially added he overprint 'O.U.S.' to their postage stamps to prevent misuse, as members received them freely for their personal mail. The overprint was printed centrally and vertically across the Queen's head. This printing continued for ten years when permission was withdrawn by the Post Office because, in 1867, the Post Office had initiated, and offered, its own security printing service. This involved underprinting the back of stamps before gum was applied, as a number of organisations were underprinting on the gum. The Post Office was concerned that overprinting on stamps could be used as a cheap form of advertising. Only five organisations availed themselves of the service, which was withdrawn in 1882. However, as a security measure, the idea was a failure once the stamp was attached to a document, or where the underprint was on the gum, and the the gum removed.

In 1867, Copestake, Moore & Crampton had a quantity of stamps stolen, resulting in a request to perforate their stock or stamps, not with their name, but that of their senior partner's initials—S.C.—to avoid a charge of advertising. The possibility of punching holes in a stamp to form letters as a means of identification, came about with the invention of a machine, patented by Joseph Sloper, an engineer, to perforate labels. With the Post Office's permission being given a year later for the letters 'S.C.' to be used, it is possible that the first 'perfin' came into being. The perfin became a successful deterrent against pilfering and was taken up by many organisations. Some eventually punched full names, logos, and designs which bordered on advertising but no action was taken by the Post Office. The fact that the punch holes, in many examples, defaced the monarch's head, does not appear to have caused an outcry.

There exists a Post Office or Inland Revenue directive confining the use of overprinted adhesive stamps for fiscal and not postage use. Any found on mail were discounted and postage due was charged. From time to time, a few specimens passed the scrutineers and these are collectable. However, the directive did not apply to perforated stamps, making them available for either fiscal or postage use.

The 1920 Finance Act (C18 Part III s34) doubled the stamp duty on Receipts to the value of £2 or upwards to 2d. The duty was later abolished by the Finance Act 1970, which took effect from 1 February 1971.

During the short existence of the British Commercial Overprint Study Circle, an attempt was made to produce a catalogue, not only listing overprints but also the fonts and font size in the form of a short code. The Perfin Society has made great strides in cataloguing Perfins. Is there sufficient interest within the Society for developing and making a permanent record of known information about these security marks on revenue stamps.

This article was originally published in The Revenue Journal of Great Britain Vol. VII No.4 March 1997.

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