Roller-perforated stamps of Danzig

Anyone who collects Dutch stamps will undoubtedly come across the so-called roller-perforated stamps at the back of the pre-printed album. Experiments with stamp affixing machines were already being conducted as early as 1903. These machines used rolls of stamps that were manufactured by hand by gluing strips from sheets together. Between 1920 and 1925, trials were conducted in the Netherlands and Germany with new stamp affixing machines. These machines originated from a German company: Deutsche Post und Eisenbahn Verkehrswesen Aktiengesellschaft, abbreviated to POKO. German coil stamps were used in these machines, such as the examples above from 1910. They came in twelve different colors and had no face value. New test stamps were put into use in 1923, such as the POKO with a 'value' of 5. Incidentally, this 'value' was not used in Dutch test machines. However, the test stamps featuring an image believed to be Shirley Temple were. In reality, she was the daughter of an official involved in the development of the test stamps. Also known are the test stamps on rolls featuring an St. Andrew's Cross, in eight different colors. Because the stamps on handmade rolls often broke due to the perforations being too weak, it was decided to manufacture special stamps for assembling rolls. In doing so, a number of perforation pins were removed, creating small bridges when perforating the sheets. As a result, the rolls remained intact. The first rolls were delivered in 1925 and featured so-called double-sided perforation. In this design, a perforation pin was omitted at the two corners, and two pins were used in the middle. Because the roll stamps also had to be placed transversely in the pasting machines, four-sided perforation was developed. Later, in 1930, a switch was made back to corner perforation, as the perforation had improved, increasing from 12 holes per 2 centimeters to 13 holes. In succession: 5 cent double-sided roller perforation, 7½ cent four-sided roller perforation, and 21 cent corner roller perforation. The cylinder stamps were often used in POKO affixing machines by companies, which applied a company perforation to the stamps. Collectors call these 'perfins'. As an example, the 6 cent stamp without company perforation and one with company perforation from the newspaper Dagblad de Telegraaf in Amsterdam. Perfin collectors prefer cylinder-perforated stamps with company perforation. There is also an association in this field: the Perfin Club Nederland. Take a look at their website: www.perfinclub.nl. Perhaps you can report a new perfin find to that club! In Danzig, they also began using rolls in vending machines. These machines could be operated by customers themselves. For this purpose, the 5 Pfennig and 10 Pfennig stamps, which were available as sheet stamps from January 1924, were also printed in sheets in which perforation pins in the corners were omitted. This led to the introduction of corner roller perforation, just as in the Netherlands. The 5 Pfennig and 10 Pfennig roller stamps were first available in 1932. They were printed on white paper. They were reprinted on yellowish paper in 1935. They lost their validity for postage on September 30, 1939.