Stains And "Rust" Spots On Stamps

No it's not a myth but maybe more like a misnomer. If it isn't particularly rare or valuable or just it's last hope try this:

Luke warm water, a NON-bleach containing liquid detergent (I like body wash because there are no chemical whiteners) and some good old fashioned Hydrogen peroxide. Soak for no more than 20 30 minutes tops but usually only a few minutes are necessary then, rinse in a little bowl of fresh clean water and press as you would when regularly soaking stuff off paper.

people will cringe and purists will always gripe to never ever do anything to your stamps but I say "horse feathers"! If it's the poor buggerz only chance to "make it" then I say why not give it a go? Good luck and use common sense and you'll make out fine. Cheers. -Jeff

It's not always an issue of "cringing" or "purist". Isn't a collector who wants to make their stamp look "nicer" also a type of "purist"? Don't most of us want our stamps to look "nicer"?

How about a different perspective? There are many collectors out there who alter their stamps for the simple purpose of making the stamp look "nicer" in their collection. Unfortunately, there are also more than enough "dealers"/"collectors" who deliberately alter/repair their stamps for the express purpose of deceiving buyers into thinking they are buying something they are not. That's what messes things up for everybody else. As it turns out, like it or not, stamps are one of the few collectibles in which altering/restoring is often extremely detrimental to the selling price.

There are very few methods of altering/repairing stamps that cannot be detected. With the proper equipment, it takes an exceptionally skilled alteration to avoid detection. That's often part of the reason we pay for certification of high-ticket items.

I see NOTHING wrong with altering/repairing stamps AS LONG AS IT IS PROPERLY DOCUMENTED in the collection or MENTIONED in seller descriptions.

So the big problem arises when you (or someone else) try to sell your collection. Few collectors document the alterations they make to their stamps. When I make purchases of collections/accumulations, and I see signs of undocumented cleaning/alterations in a spot check of items, it drops the amount I am willing to pay for the lot by a good 75%-90%. Why? Because it casts suspicion on the entire lot and I don't have time to sit there examining every single stamp. The lot can easily be full of altered stamps (and yes, I've seen some comprehensive collections which appeared spectacular on the surface but in which well over 50% of the stamps were cleaned/repaired).

The collector/seller may not be the one who made the alterations. They may not even be aware, sometimes. But it may affect how much you get when you try to dispose of the collection -- but more importantly, it might very well affect the reputation of the seller even if they unknowingly try to sell a collection of altered stamps. I've dropped sellers because they ignored my warnings that they were selling some altered items. If they can't be honest about the obvious altered items, how can I trust them to be honest about problem items that escape my notice?

When I see a collection that has the proper notes scribbled somewhere (e.g., reperfed, regummed, cleaned, trimmed, H2O2 treated...) or properly mentioned in the seller description, then I have more confidence that the rest of the collection or other listed items are what the seller claims it to be. One could argue that the documentation would scare away some buyers -- that is true. But I would argue there are some things that are more important than getting the highest possible price or finding ANY buyer. Also, why risk damaging the sales potential of the many other great items you might be selling?

In short, undocumented changes to our stamps have both a financial and reputation impact -- not just for us, but also for subsequent sellers/owners. Just my opinions, and food for thought...

k

On another note, I have met more than one collector who meticulously restored every stamp that enters their collection, even the minimum catalog value stamps. They are fully aware that it pretty much makes their collection of no retail value, but they don't care. To them, the value is not a "retail number". The alterations are not individually documented for each stamp, but the entire collection has been noted to contain "restored" stamps so that there can be no misunderstandings.

I think it's great they can enjoy their collection and not worry about the financial issues. I admit, I wish I could do the same...

Ha-Ha- I was waiting for some kind of repercussions from that!..But alas it is a fact indeed! You absolutely should make some kind of mention of anything you do so that there is no intention of you (or anyone) to deceive anyone on the chance your collection (God forbid)should ever be sold. Too many times have I bought a stamp and only after high magnification or a high resolution scan I have found evidence of either an old repair or a botched up cleaning. I do it if its used and still carries some of the original gum (how that happens to begin with is a mystery to me)and if the ends somehow justify the means. It's all up to the collector of course and khj, I meant no disrespect as you seem to have taken some to that "purist" statement... I apologize if you did khj Sincerely -Jeff

khj,

How do you tell that a stamp has been cleaned? I'd like to know if I should document any cleaning I haven't done myself. And to be able to tell whether or not a stamp I might want buy has been cleaned. I wouldn't want to buy or sell uninformed.

Karen

Not to worry, Jeff. No disrespect taken, no apology is necessary whatsoever. Just pointing out that "purist" can apply to a lot of things . I say enjoy your stamps the way you want to -- just realize that some things may have a ripple affect later on.



Sorry, but there is no easy way to determine if a stamp has been cleaned without physically examining the stamp. In addition, it's nearly impossible to detect a skillfully chemically cleaned stamp with the unaided eye.

I don't think you should be responsible for every little thing done by someone else. Nor do I think it is your responsibility nor necessary to thoroughly examine your stamps. That's what expertizers are for. But, if you happen to notice an alteration, I would note it (it's pretty easy to forget after a few years). Consider a reperfed stamp. Chances are, you aren't the one who reperfed it -- but guess who gets the blame if you sell it without mentioning the reperf?

There are many who do not consider cleaning as altering a stamp. There are many dealers and even auction houses that do it all the time, and they don't necessarily tell you. It always sounds better when we think we are "restoring" the stamp. But the fact is, most cleaning does leave signs. For example, I'm going to erase a light pencil mark off the stamp. I use a nice plastic eraser, and it seems to remove the pencil mark with no obvious damage to the stamp. But actually, you have changed the surface of the stamp slightly. So under the right wavelength of UV light, you can sometimes see a mark where the eraser rubbed the surface -- this is especially true of surface-tagged US stamps, where you will see a loss of taggant because of the eraser. When I see that "elongated" oval/rod, I cannot work backwards and say for sure that something was erased. I'm just pointing out that even the most minor of changes does leave a sign.

Chemical cleaning always leaves some signs -- although a skilled person can do certain things to try to mask it. It's a mistake to think that chemical cleaning is like washing dishes, and that all I'm doing is removing "gunk". A cleaned dish will essentially look like a brand new dish. A cleaned stamp is actually not the same as the original. For example, when you do the H2O2 treatment to try to recover certain pigments that have blackened due to sulfur contamination, you aren't actually removing the sulfur. You are changing the contaminating "blackish" layer into a semi-transparent layer so that the uncontaminated underlying ink can be seen -- hence, the stamp color appears to have been restored. Actually, the sulfur is still there! This is discussed in other threads, so I won't go into those details again.

I cannot go into details regarding how to detect chemically cleaned stamps, because there are several methods used to chemically clean -- and I'd have to talk about how they are cleaned, which I'm not about to do.

If you are serious about it, you simply have to play around a little, to recognize what to look for. But you will recognize it when you see it. I'm sorry, but it's a little hard to describe. I was interested in learning how to detect altered stamps, which ironically meant I had to learn how to alter stamps and also think like a forger. I used have access to several research labs with a lot of optical and spectroscopic equipment. Now I'm no longer in research.

Although easier, you don't necessarily need all that fancy equipment. I can tell you that many basic localized cleanings can be noticed with a filtered UV lamp (magnifier/microscope also helps). There will be a noticeable change in photoluminescence in cleaned areas (sometimes brighter, sometimes darker, depending on cleaning method). But you also have to consider affects of the ink color, paper type..., as these factors can also affect photoluminescence uniformity. You will need a research grade filtered UV lamp -- those itty-bitty philatelic UV lamps will not do. For stamps that were completely immersed in a cleaning solution, you will usually need a reference collection to compare -- especially if the stamp is known to come in different paper varieties. You can't simply say, it fluoresces differently from the other copy of the stamp I have, so it must have been cleaned recently. It really may have been printed on a slightly different type of paper.

The other great modern tool is the scanner and tweaking the image with software -- this is often useful for things such as spotting washed/removed cancels.

Sorry I couldn't give you a more concrete answer.

Bottom line -- enjoy your collection. I didn't mean to get everybody worried.

khj,

Thanks for the explanation! Very interesting!

I won't worry about it. It's unlikely I'd be able to afford a stamp that requires 'expertizing' and I'm unlikely to sell any that might.

Nevertheless, I enjoy the learning---thanks for the teaching!

Karen