Opinions On Regummed Stamps

It's possible these stamps were stuck together at one point and separated using a humidifier or something of the sort. This would account for the gum on the face of some stamps as well as the stiff perforations (due to gum transfer from one stamp to another).

The option you propose is also possible. If you intended to regum classic stamps, wouldn't you want to test it on inexpensive stamps first? I guess I'm not much help :)

Couldn't agree more!

I have no experience with regummed stamps. I do have an fairly expensive MNH stamp that I bought on a whim many years ago, I am too scared to check it.(too late to return and I prefer thinking it is MNH) - Maybe I will post it up for inspection.

I have always been a firm believer to leave stamps how you got them and prevent any further damage. So my advice would be to keep it as a regummed stamp if you cannot return it. (Although I am guilty of splitting sheets and blocks from the common modern South Africa and Homelands)

Drew

I am a MNH collector for Canadian stamps (Rod shudders). For most of the oldest stamps, MNH is virtually impossible to come by. The Unitrade catalogue specifically states that regummed stamps have the same value as stamps without any gum, so for those oldest stamps, I buy regummed copies and soak the gum off. I'm not interested in some mystery acidic substance in the added gum turning the stamp brittle in 20 years. Besides, the chlorine in tap water acts like an extremely mild bleach, brightening up paper a bit and cleaning off some surface dirt.

Ryan

I have absolutely NO experience with this topic but I have never ever seen a re-gummed stamp and only in old (1950-60-ish) literature have I ever seen the practice mentioned so I'm not even really convince that this is even in practice as the end defies the means. like I said I have no experience and even less knowledge so take it for what it's worth.

Hi

Personally I would prefer a classic mint stamp with no gum than one re-gummed. Also one has to be aware of stamps that were issued without gum. Long ago I came across a couple of these no gum issues with gum. To me that is downright fakery to fool an un-informed collector into paying extra money for a gummed stamp (which never existed).

I seem to remember reading somewhere that at one time in the early days of stamp collecting collectors soaked off the gum from mint stamps. The reasoning was that in some cases the original gum tended to crack and in doing so actually split the stamp.

Jerry B