Tape Residue Removal?

Anyone find a way to remove tape residue on stamps? I have occasionally come across stamps on parcels that have tape over them. Whenever I try to soak the stamps off, tape residue remains on the stamps.

Unfortunately nothing I have ever tried has worked well at removing tape residue from stamps without damaging them. I have considered them unrecoverable. Perhaps someone else has had some luck?

I have a booklet called "The Dealers' Guide To Chemical Restoration Of Postage Stamps" from which this information is derived.

For Scotch Tape Adhesive, it suggests saturating the stamp with carbon tetrachloride and working the adhesive with a brush, "back and forth at first, then in a circular motion." It then describes using a dry brush to brush across the spot with the adhesive as the carbon tetrachloride dries. (Carbon tetrachloride is very volatile and evaporates quickly and also should only be used in a very well ventilated area because it can asphyxiate you.) This should be repeated several times with the stamp in the liquid for as short a time as possible. It then recommends washing the stamp using castile soap and something called "Tween 20" (presumably available from a source listed in the back of the booklet if still a valid offer} and a water rinse. I'd try a mild dish washing solution and a water rinse after the carbon tetrachloride treatment.

In another section headed Rubber Cement And Scotch Tape they suggest using a solution of 50% toluene and 50% benzene, using light brush strokes, as before "not to disturb" the stamp's fibers.

The list in back of the book offers most of these, (if still available through them) except the carbon tetrachloride and castile, but in very small quantities because of the kind of nutty shipping restrictions the government has placed on everything these days.

If you happen to try any of these, please be sure to post your results, here!

Seems like it would work. Just have to be very careful brushing the stamp and handling the organic solvents. Tween 20 is a detergent.

Thanks for posting this procedure, modern_who. I would give this technique a try if I had an expensive stamp I wanted to save.

I just wanted to throw in another caution about carbon tet. In addition to being an inhalation hazard, it is absorbed through the skin. Some people tolerate it very well but others don't. Take care to keep it off your skin as much as possible, or wear appropriate gloves to protect yourself.

You can look online to get the specifics on chemical (carbon tet) hazards and precautions.

When we were kids, my brother and I loved messing around with chemicals. Not just the chemistry sets popular back then, but some serious stuff my father had accumulated in his youthful pursuit of chemistry when Popular Science magazine published all kinds of things you could do with the "right stuff" and all of it was pretty readily available.

He had what was left of a gallon of carbon tetrachloride. We liked the way it would make flies drop, but the coolest thing to do with it was to dissolve moth crystals or a moth ball (naphthalene) in it, put it in an atomizer, and use it to frost windows. The carbon tet evaporated about instantly and left behind crystals of naphthalene that looked like frost. Of course the crystals didn't last very long because the naphthalene dissipated quickly.

I guess we were probably just about the last generation to survive without being over protected and regulated to death. If you use some common sense and maybe take your stamp cleaning project out onto the porch, you'll be alright. You won't be using that much of it, anyway.

WOW Modern - you did all of that and you can still speak and write coherently! You're right about our generation. I still wonder how I survived eating all that lead based paint as a kid and living with parents who smoked like there was no end in sight!

Most of the chemicals you recommended are highly CARCINOGENIC...no stamp is worth losing your health over!

They will not be applied directly to the forehead!

Thanks for all of your help everyone.
So far I haven't run across a stamp I want to save out of the taped ones I have found so far. But if I do find one and try to get the tape off, I will post my results here.

rockin

Hello everyone.....

A better solution......

On the label of G & K watermark fluid it states that it will also remove self-stick stamps and tape from paper.

4oz bottle from Subway is $8.54 + shipping and it evaporates much slower than other watermark fluids.........it does contain Heptane and it EXTREMELY flammable.

And, welcome to the club Joe.

Geez Tom I'm only 45 mins from Subway. What an easy a cheap thing to try. Thanks.