Dave Hill tells the story of Joseph Sloper and

the invention of perfins.

The History
ofPerfins
warehousemen, they would appro\'e
priming their name on the back. This
was e:<:pensive as il had 10 be done by
Perkins Bacon, the printers of stamps,
before gumming. Few firms tOOk up the
idea and more firms printed over the
gum hut this was nOI secure as il washed
off with the gum.
Menlion should be made of the earlier
Idea of a finn's name bdng placed in a
ring around the embossed stamps of
poslal stationary. This gave a liltte
protection against fraudulent use but was
mainly for advenising. Most of the finns
who used and overprints went on
10 use perfins.
Sloper used the following newspaper
cutting 10 press home his
poim.
'Cl-lARGE OF
RECEIVING 70(}()
STAMPS
AI the Manchester
Police COUrt John
Howarth, provision
dealer, WM charged wilh
receiving from erund
bo}'1 and juruor clerks in various offices,
:1 targe number of stamps in payment for
bread and cheese. In a drawer were
found 7,820 Id and 2d postage slamps
and receipt st:lmps value [35 19s 2d.
some were mint and some had heen
soaked ofT1clters.
'He was discovered when an errand
boy, questioned abom tile disappearance
of two halves of a 5 nOle in leners,
broke down and admined stealing the
leners for the sake of the stamps wilh
which he bought a bun at the accused's
shop. Finding the note in the leuers, h"
panicked and hid them in a drain, when.
police found them. Howarth was
senrcncc:d 10 5 years in jail.'
Thus chc s,age ..vii, sel for Sloper's
periins. Early attempu; to encourage use
were unsuccessful because the POSl
Office held that the perfurations might be
a way of removing the cancellation from
the stamp. A second round of negoti-
ations left Sloper wilh the impression
thal officials ;ll. the Post Office weren't
overly troubled by his plans, but when he
wrote asking Ihem, in effect, to give
unqualified approval to his system, they
hurriedly called him back in and lold him
mey did nm appro\e. Sloper wrote again,
apologising in florid Victorian style,
underlining words and pointing out the
concern of 'leading public companies'.
As it seemed that Sloper would not be
lightly put off, the case was pm 10 tWO
officers, onc reporting back in favour, the
other against.
Perhaps the Postmaster General's
secretary nipped a coin; anyway he
JC Boyd
'protectlve
"ode,p,lnt'.

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machinery, bm the sole right for its use, a
vinual monopoly. It was nOI applied to
postage Slamps umil 1868 but this still
allowed Sloper four years before his
rights expired.
The POSt3ge stamp-did, and still does,
provide a convenient way to pay small
sums; by sending stamps, in with a lener,
which the recipient can Ihen use for
posl3ge. Even if the chief clerk who
opened the post wasn'l tempted by Ihe
Stamps, then Ihe junior clerk might be
templed to sleal the few kept for postage
in a dra..... u, or the post boy sell( 10 post
le\lers might remove the Stamps and
Bank 01 England ehequ.. perfo,atlon.
throw the letters away. Gibbom Spedolised
C:Hologr.lt Volume I lells us that the
Oxford Union Society were the first 10
Iry to combat this in 1859 by printing
their inilials on the f:lce of their scamps.
The POSt Office were nm kecn on the
idea but in 1867 lold J. C. Boyd,

.' "'''' u"....,y

Socklty
overprinted stamp
10 prevent thett.
. ,
L
it:l" is known of lJ,,' "",non:>! !ife of
Jose-ph Slopn, the inveolOl of
perfins, but he was perhaps tyPical
of the self-made, small businessmen of
Victorian Umtli. He was born about 1812
and at rirst traded as a decorator '0
Oxford London. He later style<!
himself an engineer Dnd patented a
number of inventions, although only his
invemion of perforation as a means of
cancelling or indelibly marking has
survived.
In faCl he nearly didn'l do this eiuu:r
and the course of history might have
been im:vocably changed as shown from
the pages of the Sunday Expreu during
1945. Even before the invention of me
postage stllmp Ihe Inland Revenue was
often defrauded by the illegal re-use of
embossed revenue sumps. In 1832 a
young man suggested that they be
pcrfonned, then embossed with the date
aI the time of use. 111e Inland Revenue
were delighted and offered the man the
j.ob of canying the idea to fruition. When
he told his fiancee of his plans she
.... 5tl:r"'JJ be
titled with plugs, iIO doing a....ay with the
need for perforation. The simplicity of
this so impressed the Revenue that they
promptly withdrew thc lOb offer.
The young m:m, Henry Bessemer,
went on to be knighted for his later
invention of a steel malung proceu. The
Inland Revenue last year ce1ebrdted 300
years of the reH'nue slamp; it hu date
plugs 10 this day.
To return to Joscph Sloper, his
invention was originally applied 10 the
cancellation of IInd accounts to
prevent them being presented for
payment a second time. Laler, even the
amoum in pOWl<Js, shillings and pence
"'ere perforated, to prevem the forger
from changing the amount ""linen on a
theque by a hil of expert penmanship. A
palent gave Sloper not only an exclusk...
right for 14 years tu mnke the pcrforuting
STAMP MAGAZINE. NOVEMSEI't 1995
p05lmaSters. CQmpctition was so grut
thal large uscrs of perfins were offered
the SClVICt for frn:, the d'$COunt p.aid for
Ihe perfonung. Laler, SJoper- became a
lub-pallmlSler bUI had 10 buy olher
prCl1\lscs: the city office he had opened
was 100 nur an t'Suhbshcd post office.
Evenlually C'o'm sub-postm:utCl"S lost the
discount on sumps, whIch funht'r upset
Slopen. They never offered all Ihe
s.o:rvices of a post office and indeed Ihi,
was very secondary (0 the perfouting
busineSli. 111is led 10 many eornpJaims
from the public. slill held In POSt Office
records These culminalt'd '" an
argument bet.....een I POSI Office
and SIope!'s son. PtrC)', .....ho .....hen IUkcd
wl::l-I wn prepared 10
m3u and, bemg :ok! the"e ... 1'0 e.'Ct"
rn<lOC)' for them, replied 'none'.
Onc of the leasons lhe dlSCOuOl wa,
wilhduwn was no doubt the case of
Braham, a sub,pOStmaSler from
Tabernacle Street whose servlcts
llIc1uded perforanng "amps Braham
went bankrupt and SQme of his eredilOrs
looked 10 the l'OSI Office 10 reImburse.
lhem because Brahlm hid used Ihelr
name Ind COlIt C'f anns on hiS bUSIness
Sllt>ooery. QutSllOrlS ...ere asko:d In the
l'louse of Commons bOlI the 1'051 OffICC
n:fuscd 10 pay Ihe crtdllors. It 'NU tvn1
SUggCliled thal the POlII Office lake owr
the businc:;.s of th<: perlor.llon but 11 was
thought thIS ...ould be an unwalTlnled
inlerfen:nee with pnvllt' mlcrprise.
In his reply 10 queSllonm& on lhe
nt31ler the rOStm:,sfer Gener.ll Slated: 'I
am aware of the bllnkruplcy in question.
" .
PSllor.llne perlln. on 24p ami
18p IUIn'P'llt Raad!nC ume
Slope,'. orlC!ltal machines.
dis(:ounl lll,d been introduced because
SllIlioners were worried lhal lhe l'OSI
Office." WIS laking business from tht'm
when stamps were fust issued. Ope: of
these stalionc" applied 10 the POSI
OfT>ee 10 perforale slampll with the
full n.'UIle 'S"'-ITON' fOf" I dlml bul
L'K rOIl Oiix:e Iclu:scd pcrmtWon on
!.he grounds thn il wa, adwenisin,.
The OMimal ;"!lwctions in !he Post
Office guide h:ld been badly worded
and had resulted In pcrfms of iniliais
of names. 'llte poinled OUl
lhal there were many full name
perfins already in and although
the POSt OrrICe visiled many of these
fmm 10 U)' IQ gtl them to Slop the use
of full namea. !hel'!" ...."tU 10 many thal
they gave up. Full name penm. II'!"
kttnly collected.
O!.her competLlUJ'l with vendor's
liccncc$ ....""'"' sub-postrnaslers; in fact,
despile laler obleclions from Sloper
and slallOners, "cndor's liccnct'S ",CI'C
withdrawn from all except
Wllltlrr>e PfOvIs5onal perfln - not. waryln&
positIon of the hoIn.
their theft hUI the POSl Offict' would nm
permil tht'lr use other ilian on rccc1plS;
the POSI Office was in flel lalhering a
pun;:hase LU
When SlOl'elli monopoly ended in
I R7.! the competiuon el:ne !"rom
Olher $l2J1lP \'I:'nll'>r'$ like sUlUonen who
received I d,scount on IlImps. This
Slopen'l leltemeadlnl.
,.. -
_.
-;-
Slopers made machine. for firms to
perforate their own stampJ and did other
geoeral engineering w(>rk. uHer they
pnllled linn on Ihe fllees
for receipt purposu. These are sublly
diffcrem 10 they were 10 prt:\.enl
recommended Ihll Ihe P05lmUler
Gencr:ll approve me use of pc:rfins and
SIoper Ion no ome in aplolting the laSI
oi mo-north'. He eyen
unsutta5fuJly to attend It by p;llenung

Inslru"uons appeared to Ihe Post
Orriee Gllide for Pal/IflOJlIrJ not 10
ptl"fim fOt a5h. POSI
Offiee remained fairly luke.... arm ahout
the Idea, .... hen anybody asked about
namp secunty. they were recommended
to Slopers. Sloper wu later gJY'l:n a lelU'r
l'ommcnding perfins 10 fon::lgn poslal
lu!honues and the Inland RrI.'alue
Sloper became I It,,eoud stamp
..endor, ",'hich give him a I per cenl
dISCOunt on !hoe slamps he purchasrd for
pcMorallng, Ibis III addiuon to his charge
for P<rfontiol mCfused prOfilS. Such
thinp wefe common III Victorian limes
when public servanlJ had the righlS of
palrQnage. ie, they could appoim friends
Of' relalives IQ imponllnl iobs, or would
even do so fOf' money.

lSTAJoI" JoIAGA:tJNII!:. NOVE"'SEl'I l!t!tll

/l.lr Braham was a Sub Postmaster in
TabtrnacJe Street, EC, who in addition
to the business conducted for the 1'0Sl
Office Cliorried on a private business as a
perforaling press maker and perforalor of
postage stamps.
'n,e POSt Office does not supply the
public wilh perforated Stamps, or sell
sumps at olber prices than that indicated
by their face value Or on other than cash
terms. Mr Braham's transactions in
relation 10 the perforation of Slamps
being thus of a purely private character
then: is no ground for compensating Mr
Bra/um's credilors al the expense of the
laxpayer. A Sub POSlmaster is n:quired to
find security for his fidelity in that
capacity but not for debts incurred in his
pri\"Ble business.
'So far as the POSt Officc is concerr.ed
nil question of pl"O".tt\lti,m arises.'
111is led to surveys of perfins in the
post, the results of which are held in the
records. In 1906 Slopen pc:rforau,d over
5,000,000 worth of sumps, Sub-
postmasters figured in pemns for many
rurs: even in the 19305 coum.ry town
was warned 10 SlOp
perforating stamps all a favour to a large
firm. Somehow pemns had found Iheir
"'ay uuo the main stamp slock, precisely
I.he situauon Ihe rulcs &Ct OUt to prevent.
ThIS would also interfere with
cm
JS/CoperflnuSfld
: :.::. IOf publicity
: , : .', purposes, never
: '.' appeared Of! .tamp".
C:::::
postmasters' pension rights since they
were direct employees of me POSt Office.
The indomitable joscph Sloper died in
1890 from a poisoned finger, no doubt
the result of a minor injury at me works.
11 was lefl l.O brother Henry and sons
Perey and Eusuce 1.0 carry on the
businen, Onc of their last compelitors,
Sidney Allchin, sub-postmaster and
chemist in England's Lane near Sloper's
Hampstead works, was taken QVer in the
19305. Although the sub-POSI office and
chemists still remain, me dC$U'Oyed
the city worl<.ti alollG with m;IrIY perfm
dies. 111is led l.O perfin's own provisional
is'Sues, where different single Jcner dies
were used and the sheets of stamps
passed through lhe machine a number of
times to produce the combination of
initials requirt:d. These can be identified
by lite variable position of me lenen of
the penUl,
The Hampstead works had been
cscblish! in more or less open cowmy in
1875. Even in this, Sloper's irascible
character comes out. When Ihe new
rni""ays hemmed him in on rhrec sides he
complained of the depredations and unruly
behaviour of lite Irish labouras building it.
He would never allow the emnmce to be
built up to me level nccc:ssary fOT a nearby
bridge over the railway, resulting in a steep
asc=1 still in use: today.
E\'emually, the almost universal use: of
franking machines by even the smallesl
firms resulted in a rapid decline in
demand for penlns. Only a few years ago
me laSt works at Hampstead close:d and
the business was sold to a R""ding
company who oper:llte al me leading edge
of compul.erised cheque writing
technology. They still handle some
pemns, and 11. few private machines arc
Slill used. Before liampstead closed me
I'ernn Society was able fO obtain IiOme of
Sloper's I'CCllrdS.
Ihe COSt of postage sl.ill repn;senl8 a
fair sum of money but it seems peny
pilfering is allowed or al ICMI. not wonh
guarding against.
Dove Hill is treasurer/sccttt1lry of the
Pemn SocielY. He can be eomaeled at
'Paardeberg', West End, Marazion,
Cornwall TR17 OEH. In writing this
hisl.Ory he has dr-awn heavily on the far
more eomplel.e histories wriuen by
Charles Jennings and John Nelson, bom
past presidents of the I'crfin Society.
John Nelson's handbook is still in print.