Tips For Soaking US Self Adhesives

There have been a number of posts on soaking self adhesive (SA) stamps. So, I thought it might be helpful to tell you all of my experiences.

Disclaimer: expect the following methods to not always be successful, so don't chew me out if a prized stamp gets ruined. That said, I can also say that the great majority of my SA stamps have been successfully soaked off the paper. If you only have one sample of a particularly scarce stamp, do not attempt the following.

I have found that some self adhesive are simply impossible to soak. I've inadvertently destroyed a number of beautiful stamps by trying. Others soak off easily. What I do now is wait till I have at least two identical stamps and try soaking the worst of the two. I have had considerable success with most SA by checking the back of the stamp being soaked to see if the envelope or stamp paper is uniformly wet before trying to remove the stamp. On a stamp that is not ready to separate from the envelope there is usually a distinct difference in the appearance of the paper in the center of the stamp. It almost looks as if the center is dry even though the stamp may have been in water for 20-30 minutes.

When uniformly wet, some SA stamps can be "peeled" off the paper; peeling the envelope, rather than the stamp, is preferred. For those that won't easily separate from the envelope, I take these stamps fresh out of the water and put them between my thumb and another finger and try to slide the stamp off the paper with a gentle sideways motion. In my experience a fair number of SA will slide off. Those that won't are the impossible ones.

I have also occasionally had some SA stamps that had a small spot of adhesive that would not release (appearance of dry spots). For these, I removed as much envelope paper and adhesive as possible that separated easily. I then removed the tiny "glob" of glue by gently rubbing or rolling the glob with my finger until it came off. I've even pulled on the glob at times with success. It stretched like a rubber band until it let go of the paper.

I suggest that you get a lot of different surplus SA stamps and experiment. I've destroyed a lot of stamps before I got a feel for determining which SA will or will not separate from the envelope.

Marty

I agree with your method, and have found the same to be true myself. The only other thing I could add is use VERY hot water. The glue seems to melt off better the hotter the water.

Thanks for your tip. I was always afraid to use very hot water, believing it would somehow damage the stamp. I'll try it on my next soaking session.