No Die Cut Ramirez Strip. Outsmarting The Marker Monkey!

I received back my strip of five no die cut Martin Ramirez stamps which had clearly been cancelled at the USPS as I hand deliver my mail. Behold the pen monkey abused it. But after using a q tip, tissue, and high grade acetone I was able to remove nearly all the pen ink with a few light rolling wipes. If I had noted the pen earlier I would have been able to get all of it off, but I let it sit about a week. I will take it back to the post office and ask for it to be lightly cancelled again for my collection. Not bad, eh?

Before


After

Nice job! Have you practiced the technique before?

I'm thinking you certainly didn't get these results on your first attempt.

Yes not my first attempt. Learning curve was not too steep though. Key is to act quickly, within a day or two. Sharpie marker actually comes off easier than the pen ink.

My technique is wrap a small piece of some toilet tissue around a Q-tip, then dip tip in acetone, and gently roll and rub perpendicular across the ink direction. Important to rotate the q tip and insure fresh clean tissue is rubbing the stamp as the ink is removed... Otherwise you end up redepositing some ink traces.

Of course this is a pain, but worth it for some stamps. I caution you to be aware some stamp printing inks can be fugitive to acetone so practice on damaged examples before doing anything valuable. I have rescued a few express mail stamps this way.

Thanks, I'll have to give it a try. I hope your USPS counter person is good with the date stamps.

Cleaning disfiguring marks (prices, dealer notes, etc) from covers and documents is a tougher challenge, I'm sure. As you say, the longer you leave the ballpoint ink on the paper, the less likely you are of having success.

Good luck. Since you brought it up, if the marks on a cover are worth erasing (some should remain if they are research comments) you can have success using a Magic Rub Eraser by Sanford and a Hi-Polymer Eraser by Pentel. When erasing it is important to shield the surrounding areas so you rub only where needed. Never use an ordinary pencil eraser as they are too harsh and often erase by rubbing away the paper surface. The two erasers I cited above are very gentle and highly effective.

Thanks again. I'm an old hand at using vinyl erasers since I repair and rebind books. I've never used acetone in my work with paper.

On other SCF threads I've extolled the virtues of Magic Rub and Pentel Hi-Polymer erasers... and I've advised readers to steer clear of the cheaper "knock offs".