Gallery

 

Part IV -- Perfins of Polish Danzig, 1925 to 1939 and Perfin of World War II Occupation

The existance of the VD perfin is not questioned and can be found on both Danzig Free City and Port Gdansk stamps in many positions. Iii fact, the VD pet-fin has been recognized by all study groups. In the Aleksander Sekowski article, the “S” perfin of Siemens, GmbH is reported used on Port Gdansk stamps between March and December 1929. This infers that there are at least two in existance. These pet-fins were used during the Free City time period known as the “mailbox wars” on Port Gdansk overprinted Polish stamps for use in Polish mailboxes and Danzig Free City stamps for use in German mailboxes. While the ArGe Danzig 1989 article (issue 922) notes the existance of OR and ZA perfins, the information has not been corroborated.

William Smetsers has supplied information on the only perfin known to have been used in Danzig between 1939 and 1945 during the German Occupat ion. Little is known beyond its existance.

Value of the Polish Danzig Perfmn (1925-1939)

The value of the Polish Danzig pet-fin had been studied and was ass igned by Karl Kniep in the bulletin of the ArGe Danzig, No. 922 dated Janua ry 4, 1989. The valuation was based upon a survey of Danzig perfin owners and totaled 592. Additional information has been supplied by the Sekowski article The assigned value in Deutsche Marks has been corrected to obtain a 1998 value. An additional assumption was made that the same VD perfin existed in equal numbers on both Port Gdansk and Danzig Free City stamps. Note the valuation below:

 

Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 102 - January - February - March - 1999, Page 33.