figure 1

MOSKOVSKIY POCHTAMT 5th EXPEDITION

figure 2

1. Money transfer destroyer
Various perforators were used to annul stamps on Money Transfer Forms sent to central storage after payment. Where these cards had stamps both sides, a frequent occurrence 1917-1923, the stamps on the back are perforated in reverse.
2. This official perfin was used in the Post Office of Saint Petersburg. The perfin shows three parallel lines of holes. The top line has three holes, the bottom lines has also three holes and the line between those lines has five holes. So the total of holes of this perfin is eleven holes. You can only see this perfin complete on two stamps together or through a MTF or parcel card

figure 3

-This one has been postmarked and 'killed' by postal authorities, to avoid reuse. We find this kind of punched holes very often on money transfer cards, especially on stamps with high values,e.g. 35 Kop., 70 Kop., 1 Rub.
- Some Post Offices used single or double hand punches as in Fig. 2 above to annul MTF's and Parcel Cards before sending to central storage. A careful look at such MTF's enables one to work out the distance between punch holes when a two hole punch was used
Additional info:

1. Russian perfin & opposite struck from "Odessa Pocht Kontor" OPK & PKO as stamp was perforated from both sides.

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2. "Punched Russian stamps have been removed from money transfer order cards: these cards were defaced after the stamps, indicating the payment of the charge for transferring the money, have bee affixed". The following literature is given: British Journal of Russian Philately 31, BJRP Vol. 49, pp. 32/3, article by B. Pritt, and Filatelaya SSR Feb. 1973, article by V. Aleksandrov

ODESSKAYA POCHTOVAYA KONTORA