How Long Will US "Forever" Stamps Remain Sticky?

Philatelists have pondered this question many times, but only today did I find an article that actually documents the testing US Forever Stamps go through, suggesting that the stickiness of a stamp will last "at least 20 years ... and probably longer".




Here's the link to the article:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/sto...-around.html

I'm not sure what that means for the next generation of stamp collectors, and/or how much damage a stamp may incur because of the adhesive and/or silicone deterioration over time, but it is apt to raise some interesting questions about the hobby.

All of a sudden our quest for "archival" paper that will last hundreds of years seems so irrelevant if we don't really know how the stamps themselves will stand the test of time.

As the saying goes: "Only time will tell."

Interesting.

I bought a 1995 Canada adhesive stamps booklet (shipped back to Canada from Great Britain) mint, cheap, for postage use, I thought.

But when I peeled the stamps off and affixed them to a regular white envelope they curled up at the edges. I pressed and pressed and they seemed to stick so I didn't use any extra glue to keep them down.

But the envelope was returned to me 3 weeks later with these stamps missing, peeled off by machines. Perhaps if the piece of mail was handled personally all the way this wouldn't have happened but the machines put the mail through it's paces.

I do not know what temperature conditions those stamps went through going to and from the UK though, and that may have something to do with their non-adherence. So it's not just will the stamp stick OK. It is will it still be there after a trip through a couple of sorting centers and/or the frozen high altitude underbellies of airplanes?


There is also the question with mint stamps of a thing called 'cold flow' of adhesive. I read about it online from the US national archives in Washington but don't have the article now.

It basically says that after a time the adhesive will flow by itself, without the aid of heat or pressure, out from between the stamp and the backing paper.

Or the adhesive, once activated to an envelope will, over time, slowly cause the stamp and the cover to become one.

Therefore, while mint stamps are pretty, I have decided to go with used for modern as much as I can, and off paper, however I have to do it. Get rid of the adhesive is the plan. Extra work, extra time, but less worry for us worryworts.

But, oops, I keep buying those pretty new adhesive stamps!

As long as the Gluestick doesn't dry out I'd say forever.