Perforated Postage Stamps

Althougheasy to take for granted today, the appearance of perforations marked a major step in the development of postage stamps. Experiments in Great Britain began in the late 1840s, but it was not until 1857 that the United States government issued perforated postage stamps. Primarily featuring the same designs as their predecessors, these stamps were much easier to separate and thereby saved postal clerks a considerable amount of time. Collectors have come to classify perforations according to the number of holes (or teeth) in a two-centimeter span. Today’s selfadhesive postage stamps have no practical need for perforations, although the tradition lives on through simulated die-cut perforations.

While early perforations were experiments created by private individuals (center), the federally first perforated postage stamps ranged in denomination from 1c (right) to 90c (left), with various values in between.