Cleaned A Stamp And Documented It

While removing some stamps from my 60 yr old album I found a few pretty dirty ones. Thought it might be helpful clean one and document the progress at each step.
Before cleaning:





Soaked in hot water for 2 hours and saw no significant improvement.
Soaked in sodium bicarbonate solution 2 hours, rinsed 2hours, soaked in vinegar 2 hours, rinsed 2 hours and dried and got this:





Tried 2 hours of 3% hydrogen peroxide, rinse & dry





Finally, went to chlorine--WARNING--sometimes this will destroy a stamp(Old dark green stamps usually survive).
2 hours in 10ml of Clorox "Clean Up" diluted 1:20 followed by 2 hours of rinsing, then a second rinse. Solution concentration was 0.09 percent as sodium hypochlorite.





I probably should have used a more dilute solution (at least 1:40).

Final conclusion: This was just a fun experiment, not a recommendation. I could have destroyed the stamp, but got lucky this time, though some fading of color probably occurred.

Butterfly, thanks for taking the time to document and upload scans of your experiments. Last week I tried using chlorine to get rid of brown spots on some old British Commonwealth stamps. My first attempt was successful in improving their condition. I used a very diluted solution, immersed the stamps for a very short time frame and rinsed them a couple of times. My second attempt was a slightly stronger solution and I ruined the stamps.

Thanks for posting. It seems you did this all on the same stamp, though. Just wondering if you went right to the chlorine approach if you would have achieved the same result? I think you'd need to do more trial and error experiments in order to determine the best diluted formula before coming up with the best result.

Frankly, I don't know that I would want to bother with trying to "clean" a stamp like this. On a cheap stamp, there is no point as others can be acquired at minimal cost; on a valuable stamp, I wouldn't want to risk it and I expect that on the vibrancy of the color(s) and the diluted look of the cancel would diminish its value on the secondary market as compared to a stamp not receiving any cleaning and/or chemical treatment.

If I remember correctly to my days working for a stamp company 30+ years ago, the use of bleach can be detected with a UV light, the kind used to check tagging. I think I remember them glowing bright white.

I think that info came from the book: How to detected altered, repaired, etc stamps. Don't remember the exact title.

san onofre collection, interesting point

I checked it with UV and it did give some mottled white brightness. Also looked at the concentrated "Clean Up" on Kraft paper and saw no evidence of added organic brighteners, so it must have been the chlorine that induced the fluorescence.

Wt1, Of course, you are right. I knew it was a worthless stamp. That's why I chose it for the experiment (nothing to lose and something to gain in learning the relative effectiveness of different treatments, at least for most dark green stamps of that era).

nothing tried nothing is ever gained... never really tried to clean stamps before....

i don't mess with them...they are fit or they die !!

It something to remember to check if you pay $$ for any used stamps. Don't want to find out when it is time to sell.

Philb,
Well, I'm in my second childhood and don't have my Gilbert chemistry set any more, so my days of making rocket fuel from potassium ferrocyanide and sodium nitrate are over. I shall have to make do with stamp treatment. There is, though, a silver lining. Any I destroy will surely make other's stamps more valuable.

We all have different points of view..if a common stamp is in "collectible"condition thats fine...it could possibly be of use to someone...but if I see its dirty or missing a perf or creased..if its not desirable looking I make a spitball out of it!

Rocket fuel?? I thought I was the only one who did that as a teen. Only I used potassium chlorate and sugar. I hit the jackpot one time when in an old general store I found several boxes of potassium nitrate. I wanted to make gunpowder. Glad I survived all the experiments to become and remain a stamp collector.

Interesting study butterfly and great results with the the bleach! Obviously a no-no for anything of value but if you have some fillers or other stamps of nominal value, then why not?

Please send the coffins to me,
I'll happily pay postage and more.

The ripped torn and abused need love too.

Rod you are an amazing collector. Sure would like to meet you someday. - jeff

Thanks for the study butterfly. Would like to try some of those experiments myself. The only chemicals I mess / usually mess regularly with now are in my swimming pool. Humm.... I wonder if bromine will do anything?

Did I read him correctly...Rod will pay shipping for me to send him my wounded warriors? Due to late night snacking I need a Brioschi a couple of times a week...i will drop a heavily cancelled stamp in a glass of it and see what happens !!