Well, I am looking forward to many positive interactions here. I have only briefly broused the club website and am impressed with everything I have seen so far. Sorry if I mis-spell a word or two. It's not easy to type with an ambitious chihuahua in my lap. LoL!
I am very interested in the history or possible history's behind a particular stamp. Such as; Why was a particular postal cancellation used? What do the perforated letters mean in many German and European pre-1900 stamps mean? What does it mean when stamps from the 1800's have multiple cancellations? If any members could direct me to some helpful and informative resources to expand my research, that would be great. I have many interesting, mint and canceled stamps I would like to trade. Just email me as time progresses, and I will scan and send some sample pics to those interested.
Have a blessed day and thanks to the administration for letting me hop on board.
Welcome to you and hope you find our club everything you need and want.
To answer one of your questions, perforated initials are put there by large firms with big mailings,
that want to prevent employee theft of unused stamps. It is a whole other hobby of collecting them
and finding out how many firms you can identify.
I'm not very knowledgeable of them, but others on here can direct you to websites of clubs just for
Perfins (perfed initials).
Royalstranger,
Welcome to our family. You will get answers to your questions here. Many of us are general collectors and some of have specialized collections. Lots of knowledge here just for the asking.