Withdrawn Stamps

Interesting item I found while researching in the Postal Bulletin

Seasonal adjustment of gum was a subject for correspondence between the 3rd assistant PMG and the bank note companies at least as early as 1870. It was designed into contract specifications back then, but without specifying the details of its manufacture and character. Someone with more knowledge of the earlier issues can tell you whether or not this came up before 1870, but I tend to think that it did.

The problem of getting a gum that would stick when it should and not when it shouldn't was always a tough one to lick.

An interesting read dating back to 1903 (pages 21-26) on how US Stamps were made. Page 24, Column 2 suggests that the gum was actually changed FOUR TIMES a year!

https://books.google.com/books?id=d...0gum&f=false

This is one of the reasons why there used to be a lot more mint no gum stamps on the market then there is now. The older dealers I knew, and one or two very old collectors I personally knew said it was common practice to soak the gum of their collectable stamps for their collection to protect them from damage. I suspect some or maybe a lot of these stamps have now been regummed!

Cheers

David (Stampmaster)

For Interest:
Guatemala C875

https://goscf.com/t/7155#7155