FOR SALE

500 Well mixed perfins. Hand picked. G.B. $4.35,Canada $6.00, Foreign $6.25. Or send 50 U.S.perlins well mixed plus $1.00 and receive 60 G.B.and Foreign. Dorrance Gibbs (#3093); 223 N.20th.; La Crosse, WI 54601.

One of a Kind: Imperial Tobacco Company

TRADE

I have letters "A" & "B" of U.S. perfins to trade onan equal basis per catalog for those I need . Send aSASE for my "Have" & "Want" Lists in the "B", "C',& "0 " valuation, plus possibly more. Char les T.Pearson, 7348 Village Dr ive, Mason, OH 45040­14% . 8/96

William S. Shields (#2951),---------~

The following three IT/C pe rfins we re produced by POKO

iffixing machines used b )' Th e Imperial Tobacco Co (of

Grea t Brita in and Ireland ) Ltd , Bristol 2. The differences

arc subtle but the pins formi ng the foot of the T can be

used to differentiate one machine fro m another. The last

illustration shows the product o f the Dublin machine.

In use : 1929-1945 .

· Dates : 3 Aug 1929........ Issues : I(BC) lhd, Ilhd L l lhd. .M lh d, llhd, 2d o lh d' "Q lh d-I 1h d , 6d R Id

Note : Standard alphabet POKO.

First machine - pins forming2470.01 foot of 'I' in line and

horizontal.

... .... In use: 1935-1952.· ...· Dates: 5 Ian 1945.... ..e-, Issues: M 'h d, 1I.~d o Ih d. .

Q 'h d· lIh d. 2lhd . 6d...R Ihd, ld . 21hd S 21fJ: d

Note: Stand>rd alphabet POKO.

Second machine • le ftmost pin2470.0Ia in foot of T positioned

slightly low .

.. ' . In use : 1935-1952.." ...Dates:....Issues: M I lhd Q Iln d-2 lnd:0 "0. . R2'hd S 2 \\d

'"Note: Stand.lrd alphabet POKO .

Third machine - both pinsforming the foot of the T

2470.0Ib positioned low. Larger holes

atlcr cl940.

Figure 1.

The Perfins Bulletin , July/August 1996

Figure 1 is taken from page 1-103 of The PerfinSociety's New Illustrated Catalog of Great BritishPerfins, edited by Roy Gault.

I placed an inquiry in the November/ Decemberissue of The Perfins Bulletin (T mperial TobaccoCompany, p.I80) concerning the Imperial TobaccoCompany. The intent was to find an IT/ C (Ireland:Catalog of Perfins, 2nd. ed., 1994, The Perlins Club,Mewhinney) punch on any Irish stamp other thanthe 'hd "Sword of Light", Scott Catalogue number 65(see Figure 1). In addition, I was looking forexamples of this pattern on stamps of Great Britain.In retrospect, the latter question was poorlyphrased. The question should have been, "Does thispattern exist on a stamp of Great Britain used inIreland?

I was swamped with responses. I consider myselfa "new member" and found this cooperation reallygreat. Some members sent free perfins, computerlistings, photocopies of their GB IT/ C perfins,numerous lists, and the finest and kindly lettersimaginable .

I became interested in this perfin after goingthrough hundreds of Irish perfins and observing thatthe WC pattern only appeared on the 'hd Sword ofLight stamp. This stamp is part of a series that isthe longest running definitive series in the world.

The 2d Map stamp came out in 1922, the rest ofthe set including the 'hd stamp in 1923. The set wasonly changed three times prior to finally beingreplaced in 1968. In 1940 the watermark waschanged from SE to E (i.e. , Scott Catalogue water­marks 44 and 262). "rhe second change was in 1949when 8d and lld values were added. In 1966-67 the3d and 5d stamps were produced by rotogravure. Inaddition, the 2d and 3d values were overprinted in

Page 128.

April of 1941, in memory of the Rebellion of 1916.However, the IT/C punch has only been found ony,d stamps with the SE watermark. a stamp that wasin used for 18 years.

During the period 1922-1940 there were numerouspostal rate changes, but the v.p rate covered inlandmail for postal or trade cards and some specialitems (e.g., printed papers , literature for the blind ­braille) . While some collector probably has theperfin on a trade or postal card none were reportedto me. Roy Gault (#3000), The Perfins SocietyCatalog Editor, provided the most details concern­ing the history of the Imperial Tobacco Company.

At the turn of the century an American, JamesDuke, set his sights on the British tobacco market.In September 1901, he purchased Ogden's cigaretteand tobacco factory in Liverpool, England. Tocounter this threat, thirteen British cigarette andtobacco companies merged their resources tocompete against James Duke's "American TobaccoCompany" and so the "Imperial Tobacco Company"was founded November 2, 1901. The feud wassettled one year when it was agreed that the Ameri­can Tobacco Company would concentrate on theAmerican and Cuban markets, while the ImperialTobacco Company would handel the British market(which at that time included all of Ireland). A thirdcompany was set up on September 29, 1902 to dealspecifically with the export interests of both theATC and ITC.

.: .:...;

.'.'. '

One of the founding members of the ImperialTobacco Companywa W.O. & H.O. Wills with theirhuge factory in Bristol, England. As Wills was thelargest of the 13 founding companies it was naturalthat it would become the main offices for ITC. I donot know when the name changed to "The ImperialTobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland)Ltd." or who the Irish tobacco company was.Mewhinneylists a pattern for Wills Imperial Tobac­co Company, W/ITC (W15 - Figure 2) and twopatterns that spell out the Wills name (W13.5 andW14 - Figure 3). Pattern Wl3.5 is listed by Me­whinney with Belfast postmarks. Mewhinney lists"W.O. & H.O. Wills & WM. Clark & Sons as theuser of W14 (Ireland: Catalog of Perfins, 2ndedition, Richard L. Mewhinney, Compiler andEditor, The Perfins Club, 1994, pp. 34-5). I haveseen both "WILLS" patterns on stamps of variousdenominations with various cancels. I know of atleast one British firm that used as many as fivedifferent perfin patterns, so it is not unreasonable tothink that all four patterns (i.e., lTC, W/ TC, andboth WILLS) were used by the same company;however, I am unable to prove this conjecture.

According to Roy Gault, the only known datecancel on an Irish stamp with the IT/ C pattern is avery clean example showing 11 November 1938.The Perfin Society's New Illustrated Catalog ofGreat British Perfins: Section I, 1995, Roy Gault,lists three British and one Irish version of the IT/ Cperfin. The British version are shown at Figure 1and the Irish perfin is at Figure 6. I have neverseen a date cancel on a stamp with the IT/ C perfin;however, I have numerous stamps with partialslogan cancels. Through use of Irish Slogan Post­marks 1918-1983, James A. Mackay, it is fairlysimple to match the slogan with the date of usage.Examples of matching two slogan cancels areprovided as figures 4 and 5.

\'~ l S-_._-- _.- .~-_._-

Figure 2.

': :. ..~ ~ ....:.j.....

\, 13 . 5 \'il 4'-. _-~---

Figure 3.

Slogan #34First Used 1933

Dublin 'B', Cork, Limerick

Figure 4.

The Perfins Bulletin, July/ August 1996 Page 129.

PAlPOSTWfE'~

Slogan #50First Used 1937

Dublin 'C' Cancel

Figure 5.

Figure 4, "Grow More Wheat" was first used in1933 with Dublin B, Cork and Limerick postmarks.Figure 5, "No Xmas Day Delivery-Post Early in theWeek" was first used in 1937 with a Dublin Cpostmark only. That is to say, the only common cityof usage for these two slogan cancels was Dublin.These slogan cancels were used for a number ofyears before being discontinued. The "Grow MoreWheat" device was used into the 1940's and theother slogan was discontinued in 1939. Given thesedata, we might assume that while perfin patternITIC may have been used on Irish stamps earlierthan November 11, 1938, and I have no positiveproof of such usage and must rely on Gault'sreported usage of 1935-40.

The IT/C pattern has not been reported on astamp of Great Britain canceled in ireland meaningthat the Imperial Tobacco Company did not haveany offices in the six Northern Ireland Counties orthe twenty-six counties of the Republic. The BritishPOKO patterns of Figure 6 (see page 130) areattributed to The Imperial Tobacco Company (ofGreat Britain and Ireland) Ud., Bristol, England.In fact, the Irish ITIC perfin is found only on thelip. Sword of Light stamp, it could not have beenused as a single to mail letters, or parcels except incombination with other postage. The pattern isunknown in strips or multiples. On the other hand,the British IT/C perfins are found on numerousstamps of various denominations. It would thusappear that the main shipments of letters andparcels were shipped from the company's Bristoloffice.

Whilst conducting my research, I wrote to thePostal Archives in Great Britain concerning thelocation of an Impe rial Tobacco Company in Ire­land. Their response was that they had found norecord of an Impe rial Tobacco Company office inIreland. I have therefore concluded that the lidstam ps mus t have been purchased in large quanti.ties and these were delivered to Imperial Tobacco's

The Perfins Bulletin, July/August 1996

offices in Bristol were the stamps were made- upinto strips. The made-up strips were then placed inthe POKO machine where the stamps were punchedand cut before being applied to the trade or postalcards.

The postal or trade cards were then shipped inbulk to Dublin where they were delivered to theG.P.O. in Dublin for posting in the Irish mails.This might have done by mail or by rail shipmentfrom Bristol to Holyhead where the bulk lots couldbe transferred to the ferry crossing the Irish Sea toDublin. Why go to all this trouble 10 mail post ortrade cards as advertising? The reason was theconsiderable savings in postage. The rate for suchmaterial from England to Ireland was Id. Theinland Irish rate was lid. Over the long period ofusage, the savings would have been considerable.

Several other possible locations have been suggest­ed for the location of the ITIC device. Theseinclude: Boundry Lane, Liverpool 6; Dingley RoadEC1; 51 Islington Park Streel N1; and PO Box 78A,Liverpool L69 lOT. Should the POKO machine forthe Irish perfins been located in Liverpool, it wouldhave been a simple matter to apply the perfins andferry the bulk mail from Liverpool to Carrickfergus.The parcel would then be put on the night train inBelfast to arrive at the G.P.O., Dublin within a day.

While the POKO machine for the Irish perfinsmight have been used by an agent of the companylocated in Dublin, I believe that the Irish perfin wasplaced on cards in Great Britain at one of ImperialTobacco's many factories and then shipped in bulkto Dublin where the cards entered the mail stream.

I find the Irish ITIC punch to be very unusual inthat:

o Only one denomination was used.

o No company address is to be foun d inthe Republic or the Northern Counties.

o No strips or multiples are known.

o No perfins are known on trade or postcard.

Notes: My special thanks to Gerald E.Soutar (LM68) and Roy Gault (#3000) fortheir assistance.

Page 130.

PERFINS of Great Britain Co il Stamps - POKO

The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain and Ireland) Ltd.

Die in use 1930-1940.

This is the original POKO die andcan be easily identified as the pinsforming the foot of the '!, ar e inline and horizontal.

...., ,' 0 '

Die in use 1935-1945.

Issues: I Y,d 1Y,d M Y,d 1Y::d Zda Y::dQ 1d 1Y::d 6d

I ' K(, v T"IPo ~It" phcd I'" 11- 1'1 3"1

M ' kG I! i'HoTo6-f'.AoJUI!" 1'I 3Y -1'131.

o : K L"V I II 155lJ " 1'136Q ' K G- VI DA"K colo""'~ 1'131-1'153

A second die has the leftmost pin infoot of the '1' positioned slightly lowgiving a lob-sided look to the base.

Postmarks/Dates: Bristol, S Jan 1945.

' " ....o .,.

.,. .....o 0

' "

Die in use 1935-1960.

Issues: M 1Y,d a Y::da Y,dQ Y,d 1Y::d ZY:d R Y,d 2Y::d

M~ «c« I'ltoToG- €I\\lURE 1'13~ -/'l31. IQ : XC-VI DMK c olo u"-S I'} y 7-1'15'3

R 0 K(,YI L'6-HI Co l o ~"'5 I'}YI-!'}S3

o=J\E VIII IS Sue 1"1 3 ).

'.

., .....o '"o •o •

'" .....o• 0

0 ••

..... .0.,

.., ....o . "o 0. '

' " .The third die has both outside pinsin the foot of the'!' positioned low.

After c1940 this third die hasholes which are noticeably largerthan before, and may well be theresult of a machine refurbishment,

Issues: M ZY::d Q 1Y::d ZY::d I ::=:::::=~ Issues: Q Zd U ZY::d 3d1'1= Kf.-v PHoro G-I<A oJu R" 1'73~-3~=::;~~~ "'-

Ci" K (; V I OAel:; c o l ou fl.s ICj 31 -1~3Q'I(6-\I1 PAI!K ColoUR.S 1'l31 -J'lS3 1"\ I vJ \I. , ,oS3 / ...,."

LJ , ""( 1:1 . '" 1,.,(,.5 . • , .. 11

This fourth die is only fouod on coil stamps from EIRE. The foot of the 'I' is different again as, although thepins are in line, the ,' lie slightly off the horizontal.

Postmarks and dates seen so far are ill from Dublin during 1938.

Die in use 1935-1940.

' 0' •• ••o • • •

... .....o •o • •

··•

The Perfins Bulletin, July/August 1996 Page 131.