Certain financial institutions and other companies received permission from the Bulgarian postal authorities to perforate stamps with their initials. This page presents a gallery of registered Bulgarian perfins. The basic gallery is based on Rolf Weinbrecht's "Handbuch Bulgarien, Teil 1" from 1993.

Two of the companies (#11L and #12L) are not identified in Weinbrecht's handbook. There is also little or no information available about the other companies. If you have any supplementary information, I would appreciate an email from you! Also, there exist several private perfins not registered in this gallery. If anybody know other perfins than those shown here, I would like to receive information about these!

	#1L BNB in cyrillic letters The Bulgarian National Bank This perfin is known on 75 different Bulgarian stamps issued from 1889 (Mi #31) to 1944 (Mi #427): 58, 129
	#2L BGB in cyrillic letters The Bulgarian General Bank (Bulgarska Generalna Banka) This perfin is known on 48 different Bulgarian stamps issued from 1901 (Mi #51) to 1934 (Mi #261): 217
	#3L TBS in cyrillic letters The Bulgarian Trade Bank Sofia This perfin is known only on 7 different Bulgarian stamps issued from 1901 to 1903: Mi #50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 65
	#4L K The company "Kurier" This perfin is known on 28 different Bulgarian stamps issued from 1911 (Mi #78) to 1929 (Mi #226). 88
	#5L DB in cyrillic letters The company "Balkan" This perfin is known only on two Bulgarian stamps: Mi #54 (1901) and Mi #69 (1909).
	#6L BEB in cyrillic letters The Bulgarian securities Bank This perfin is known only on 5 Bulgarian stamps from 1911 til 1917: Mi #83, 85, 86, 106, 115
	#7L BCI The Italian Trade Bank  (Banca Commerciale Italiana) in Sofia  This perfin is known on 13 different Bulgarian stamps issued from 1925 (Mi #191) to 1931 (Mi #227). 211, 217
	#8L FB The Franco-Belgian Bank This perfin is known only on two Bulgarian stamps from 1928: Mi #210, 211
	#9L PB The "Praschka" Bank This perfin is known only on 4 Bulgarian stamps from 1936 til 1940: Mi #301, 377, 412, 418
	#10L 33. Allgemeine bodenbank This perfin is known on 6 Bulgarian stamps from 1938 til 1940: Mi #350, 358, 359, 396, 402, 407
	#11L N.F. & C. Unknown company This perfin is known only on two Bulgarian stamps from 1911: Mi #81, 84
	#12L ZWP Unknown company According to R. Weinbrecht's Handbook is this perfin known only on one Bulgarian stamp from 1921: Mi #158.  However, from John Lechtanski I have received a scan of "ZWP" also on Mi #163. This perfin thus exists on more than one Bulgarian stamp!!
	#13L PL The company "Paul Leverkuhn" This perfin is listed in an American Perfins Club catalog.  I have no information about neither the company nor on which stamps this perfin was used. Any help is appreciated!

• I found this at the Perfin Club Auction and thought you might be interested. Amazing, a bank perfin (#1L) on a postage due. I cannot imagine how it would have been used. Any information about this (and similar) issues is highly appreciated!

ANSWER: (N. Penev, Bulgaria):

• From October 1923 to November 1924 the postage due stamps 50 St, 1 L, 2 L and 3 L were used as regular stamps due to a shortage of stamps. This stamp was probably sold to the Bulgarian National Bank and perforated as any other stamp.
  

• Hi, I saw your web page on the Bulgarian perfins. Interesting so I decided to look at the few I had accumulated. I have seven of the twelve listed. But I also have two more which as far as I can decypher from a cyrillic alphabet are "TGT" and "SGS". Hope they might be of interest.

• I can tell you that this is the perfin of the Bulgarska Generalna Banka or Bulgarian General Bank, your #2L, but where the perforation only partly came through the stamp (lower part missing). This is quite common for this perfin.

David Coath (2003-07-29):

• Here are more samples of faulty perfins of the BGB type (#2L):

Sources:
- R. Weinbrecht: Handbuch Bulgarien, Postwertzeichen Teil 1 1879-1944, issued 1993
- The Perfin Club Catalog, USA

Back