Stamps And The Thermometer !

Well they are hailing this as the first day of Summer and the weather report says it could go to 100+ farenheit here in the Hudson Valley...so I say unto you...if someone sends a stamp swap or a request for stamps I will probably play with it..but I am not going to bother with my own stamps in this weather !!

Same here in Southern Cal,hot,hot.. My mint not hinged stamps stand up on their own,kinda panoramic type view,easier to see them now. lol

It's over 100F here but I still play with stamps [when I get the chance].
Nice cooling air-condition helps me to relax when I sit at my desk.
[Sadly the back is a problem but hopefully only a temporary one]

Londonbus1

In the Chicago area we just came through a lot of mid to high 90's. Its nice to have a pool on days such as these.

Some stamp questions I have deal with the heat of summer. The most pertinent right now is:

During summer people tend to sweat more producing more of the oils we hate to get on stamps or in collections. Recently I've just noticed that with some of my U.S. collection. Bright orangeish spots on edges of stamps and on some pages. Most are from my pre stamp tong earlier days as a kid. Luckily most are not expensive or irreplaceable.

What I would like to know is what other precautions, besides using stamp tongs, do you use for your collections? Also can the offenders be washed with soap or peroxide? Or should I just replace and chuck the bad ones?

Precautions I take to protect stamps...

Always use tongs of course.

I have a dehumidifier in the room where I store the stamps, not originally for the stamps, but because my office is in the basement and it used to be damp before we put in a sump pump. The dehumidifier creates some heat, so I try to keep the air circulating. Air conditioning takes care of some of that. The last thing I want is mildew or mold on the stamps. I try to keep it to 40% humidity although I think 50% is recommended.

Stamps not in albums or uncatalogued collections I store either in glassine envelopes inside fairly air-tight boxes or in stock books. I think slip covers are pretty important. I've started getting slip covers for my albums and stock books. I've been thinking of a second line of defense for the albums/stock books such as an enclosed book case (but maybe that's going too far). I store uncatalogued collections in a folder or large envelope and then in a large sealed box.

Generally, my goal is two lines of protection, for example, envelope and box, or stock book sleeve and slip cover, etc.

As for the orange spots, that sounds like foxing/rust. Probably not due to oils from your hands but from either oxidation or fungus/mold/mildew. The orange rust color is from the ferric oxide resulting from the chemical reaction. I would keep these stamps separate from the others in case it is mildew and look to clean them if you intend to keep them.

There are materials to make the mildew inactive and then clean the mildew stains, such as Lindner ERNI mildew stain remover. I've seen recommendations for using hydrogen peroxide. But I haven't tried either approach. However, I just ordered some of the ERNI stain remover to try on some damaged stamps (which I keep separated from my good stuff).

I haven't had any problems cleaning US stamps in warm water, sometimes with just a tiny drop of dish soap, but I am sure others are more experienced in this area.

Thanks for the reply HFS.

I was gone for the weekend. I too have a small desk and bookcase in my basement that I work on. Let me know how the ERNI stain remover works. Did try experimenting with peroxide on a few stamps. (small amount on a cotton swab) Some cleaned up.

"If the thermometer had been an inch longer, we would have frozen to death"

Mark Twain.

Rod222: thanks for that astute comment from Mark Twain. Glad to see you are back. You were missed.

Thanks :)
Not astute :( just serendipity, I heard the quote just a few days ago,
and cannot recall from whence it came, possibly philatelic reading,
or perhaps TV docco, "Famous Voyages" focussing on the chappie who
purposely beached his vessel in the polar ice cap, and expected to
be taken to the North Pole with the ice movement.