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The holes are perforations: rows of tiny punched holes that let stamps tear apart cleanly and evenly. Before perforations, stamps were printed in solid sheets and had to be cut apart with scissors at the post office counter, which was slow and left ragged edges.
| Separation method | How it works | Era |
|---|---|---|
| Imperforate | Cut apart with scissors or a knife | 1840 to early 1850s |
| Perforated | Rows of punched holes; tear along the line | 1854 onward, still standard |
| Rouletted | Small slits cut between stamps, no holes removed | Used by some posts then and now |
| Die-cut self-adhesive | Cut to shape on backing paper; mimics perforation edges | Modern peel-and-stick stamps |
An Irish railway clerk named Henry Archer patented a stamp-perforating machine in the late 1840s and eventually sold the idea to the British post office. Britain issued its first perforated stamps in 1854, fourteen years after the Penny Black, which had been imperforate: clerks and customers literally cut those first stamps apart with scissors. The United States followed in the 1850s. Perforation was one of those small inventions that quietly made the whole postal system faster, because every post office stopped spending its mornings cutting stamps.
Collectors measure them with a perforation gauge, a small card with rows of dots. The gauge number counts how many holes fit in two centimeters: a higher number means smaller, tighter holes. This sounds like trivia, but it matters to collectors because a stamp printed with the wrong gauge for its issue can be a rare variety worth far more than the common one. Two stamps that look identical can be different issues if their perforations differ.
Not every stamp is perforated. Some are rouletted instead: the paper gets small slits between stamps rather than punched holes, so they still tear apart but without the dotted edge. Modern self-adhesive stamps are usually die-cut, meaning they are cut to shape on their backing paper, and the wavy edge is just there to look like traditional perforations. And imperforate stamps still appear deliberately: some postal services issue imperforate versions of stamps specifically for collectors.
Mostly, no, and that is the honest answer. They do not help the stamp stick, they do not carry information, and sorting machines ignore them. Their job begins and ends at separation. But they left one lasting mark on design: the dotted edge is so associated with postage that graphic designers put fake perforation borders on anything that wants to look like mail, from wedding invitations to coupon books.
Coil stamps, the long rolls used in vending and affixing machines, are perforated only top and bottom, with straight edges on the left and right where the roll was cut. Booklet panes can have one or two straight edges for the same reason: the pane was cut from a larger sheet. Collectors actually catalog these straight-edged varieties separately, and a stamp with a straight edge is generally worth less than a fully perforated copy of the same design. If your stamps look "unfinished" on two sides, nothing is wrong with them; that is how coils are made.
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