Wonderfully Odd-Shaped Hexagonal Stamps And Cancels

Puzzler if you havn't "soaked" before,
just place the stamp in a bowl of room temp water
leave for 20 mins, then gently rub off any gunk
from the back. It should separate easily.

A piece of A4 paper, on top a freezer bag,
place the damp stamp on the freezer bag (no bent perfs), then another A4 on top.
Place the "sandwich" in a OLD book, remove in 3 days.

It will be as flat as a halibut, and sparkly clean.

I don't advise soaking any stamps, because tragedies can happen
When you lose the image on a stamp, its rotten.
So the responsibility remains with the collector always.
So try it out on your "duplicates first"
Dont soak any stamp with lilac or magenta shades before asking here.
and NEVER soak a Netherlands Indies, it will disappear before your eyes.
Never soak a stamp on a red envelope, you will end up with pink stamps

But if you do, you can save the day by listing it on ebay as a color variety (unlisted). Spell color with a "u" and you might get a few extra bucks.

On a serious note, if you want to try to soak a stamp off of brightly-colored paper anyway, trim close to the stamp to get rid of extra paper, soak it by itself, and try floating the stamp face up on top of the water. It's still a dicey proposition.

I missed the i.d. on the page turn. Yes, when all else fails, head to the catalogue.

Rod's stamp is Scott Q40, lemon and violet brown.

Puzzler's is Scott Q12, Q12a or Q13, depending on whether it is brownish buff, bister or lemon, respectively.

Collin

Thanks Rod for your diligent searching.

I have soaked before by the way and have a Desert Magic soaking book now which works rather like your freezer bag system (must try that).

Thanks for the soaking tips though, Rod and Cjd. It is always good to refresh ones self on the basics in case one has become lazy and misses out on the one little thing you knew but forgot this time. Which, I confess, I have been guilty of at times. Luckily not with too expensive stamps though.




With three colour (!) varieties to choose from now I think once soaked and washed clean a bit the colour I would be leaning towards would be lemon. Without comparing it to others of that series or colour shades.

Lemon would be my guess from your scan, for what its worth. Lemon also has the highest catalogue value among the three...a couple bucks used.

Collin

Apologies Puzzler
I saw the question marks and wondered.

The freezer bags, come in handy for the worldwide collector,
when we come up against stamps that have recalitrant gum.

I would quote the early Austrian goldbeaters skin stamps, whos
gum with age, curls, and becomes dang resistant.
Romania is another, but the freezer bag comes into its own
with the modern self adhesive, if there is the minutest glob
of gunk left on one of these, it will grab the drying page,
it will grab the freezer bag, but you can lift it off without damage
and treat with French chalk.

No worries at all Rod. My apologies for not communicating clearly what I was thinking.

My question marks were to indicate me not knowing (for not having looked to see) if the stamp needed soaking really (and how much) and also to question if the stamp in question should be soaked and the amount of care I should take, if more care was needed. At that time further research was needed.

It seems that the monetary value of the stamp is not a lot so the aesthetic value to me is of more importance. Even though it is rather used around the edges it is still of interest to me. I will be careful as I usually am with something I wish to preserve in as god as a condition as possible.

Question about Austria. What are the goldbeaters skin stamps? Sounds like cannibals who have caught up with Indiana Jones' rivals or something!

I do not have a world catalogue (use the libraries) and I have not as of yet looked at the Austrian stamps in this album (and assorted loose stamps). I usually soak off a small amount of stamps and then transport them and me to the library to ponder philatelic trvth.

A fascinating matter. Goldbeaters skin is made from cow intestines, and is very thin and flexible. It was used to make gold leaf, because gold could be placed between two sheets and pounded thin.

It was also used as skinning for rigid airships in the early part of the 20th century.

When it comes to stamps, the higher values could be printed on the reverse, so that the design was visible through the "skin" but would be lost if the stamp was removed. Goldbeater's-skin stamps are often collected on piece to preserve them.

Collin

Gee, that was a great lesson Collin, I'll be archiving that for sure.
I had no idea on the genesis of the term.
I was using the term loosely to describe those early Austrian,
that had the bars of lacquer or varnish to prevent re-use.
I have had the devil of a time flattening and removing gum.
when they are cleaned they are very much like glassine in texture.

I liked the airship link, I recall doing some research on "wallpaper stamps" some time ago, and learn't that the very famous hot air balloon of Montgolfier was actually skinned with wallpaper.
How dangerous must have that been

Rod (and Puzzler)-

I assumed that the North German and Prussian stamps that are said to be on goldbeater's skin actually were on goldbeater's skin, and not simply on paper that had similar characteristics to real goldbeater's skin.

After thinking about this thread, I looked at my Scott Classic to see what I could find, and I see under Prussia that the stamps were "Typographed in reverse on paper resembling goldbeater's skin." No similar note is found for the North German Confederation high values, so I suppose that is still up in the air for the moment, but I'm thinking that actual goldbeater's skin may not have been used after all.

Anyone have a definitive answer on this?

I was wondering what these goldbeater stamps looked like so I started googling and finally, looking for '30 groschen' found this site in German which has these 2 stamps. A 10 groschen (penny) and 30 gr stamp pictured in 1872. Official, I think, stamps. High value at the time. The stamps mentioned in Wikipedia and allexperts articles to be the ones printed on goldbeater's skin.

http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.d...serreich.htm

However, this site doesn't seem to tell about the 'paper types' used. Further reading needed.

I think I read something about them in a catalogue from 1939
I'll have a scrummage (scrimmage?) in the attic.
IIRC half the page was ripped off.

Glory be, I had scanned it.
So, Paper soaked in resin,
I can only give you one page, catalogue has been vandalised.
(Left hand page only)

Had a thought to look in the 1895 album I am working on (it is a catalogue and album in one little book).

My translation skills are very poor and to rely on Google translatioon is risky at times but . . .

The album is in French. Under Prusse (Prussia) is this listing of the same two stamps I mentioned above:

chiffre, sur baudruche, denteles (pour controle)
Google translates to:
figure on bladder, lace (for control)

Which sounds like to me a stamp on lace-like intestinal type of skin, made for official control of important matters. At least it seemed to be that?



=========
Also on ebay right now is this picture which shows one the delicacy of the paper/skin and the reason the French catalogue (Maury) referred to it as lace (if the translation was correct in context).

Very nice part article Rod!
That explains it better than some of the Wikipedia and other things I was reading. Somewhat. I think I still need to puzzle on it for a while to get it visualized so I can grasp it.

Please pardon my translation / quick assumptions. At least I recognized I need to study more!