The practice of Perfin originated in Great Britain in 1868 and quickly spread to Belgium in 1872, followed by Denmark, France, Germany, and Switzerland in 1876, Austria in 1877, and finally the U.S. in 1908. Perfin is a term that stands for perforated initials or perforated insignia, and it is sometimes also known as SPIFS, which is an abbreviation for Stamps Perforated with Initials of Firms and Societies.

Perfin, as its name suggests, is a technique utilized to puncture stamps with holes in order to incorporate initials or the name of the organizations possessing them, as a precautionary measure against theft. This is due to the fact that in Britain, unused stamps could be sold back to the post office during that time. As a result, perforated stamps can only be used by authorized entities, and if they are stolen, the stamp would hold no worth.

Perforated postage stamps, once regarded as damaged and undeserving of collection, have now gained significant value and are greatly desired by collectors with specialized interests. Identifying the specific uses of each perfin can be challenging as they often lack distinguishing characteristics.