Perot Provisional

Overview

The 1848 Perot Provisional is an extraordinary piece of postal history, bridging the gap between handmade makeshift postage and official government stamps. In 1848, Hamilton’s Postmaster William Bennett Perot maintained a mail drop-box outside his post office where residents were supposed to deposit their letters along with the mandatory one-penny fee. However, Perot frequently found that people dropped their letters but 'forgot' the pennies. Tired of losing money, Perot cleverly devised Bermuda's first postage stamp. He took his regular circular cancelling device, removed the date plugs from the center, struck the circle onto a sheet of paper, and manually wrote 'One Penny' and his signature 'W.B. Perot' inside each circle. He sold these by the sheet, allowing customers to paste them onto letters and drop them in the box. A 'First Issue' of these stamps spanned 1848 to 1856 in black and red inks. They went entirely unnoticed by the philatelic world until the very first copy was miraculously discovered half a century later in 1897. Today, only 11 copies of this historic makeshift stamp survive, making them elite treasures often passing through royal collections.

Design & Technical Details

A very primitive, circular handstamp struck on bluish laid or wove paper. It reads 'HAMILTON' globally across the top arc and 'BERMUDA' across the bottom arc. The center is entirely handwritten by Perot: '1 Penny' (or 'One penny') and signed 'W.B. Perot'.

Historical Facts

• Bermuda's very first postage stamp, predating official British issues by 17 years.
• Only 11 First Issue copies exist today: 5 in black ink and 6 in red ink.
• The stamps were unknown to science and collectors for nearly 50 years until their 1897 discovery.
• Queen Elizabeth II owned at least three of the surviving copies within the Royal Philatelic Collection.
• A Second Issue without a specific denomination also exists from 1861, although it was less personalized.

How to Identify This Stamp

If you believe you may have found a Perot Provisional, here are key identification characteristics to check:

• They are hand-cut and irregular; they are not perforated and usually look like circular cut-outs.
• Every genuine Perot Provisional bears the actual handwriting of William B. Perot; the signature should match his known historical signature strictly.
• Because of their extremely primitive nature, they have been forged heavily in the past. Professional provenance is absolute.

Frequently Asked Questions