"Back Numbers" On Used US Stamps (Coil)

On the US coils which are back-numbered (and there are not that many issues that have back-numbers), the numbering only appears on every tenth stamp.

By the way --

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, George!!



k

You are so right, George. I would have very few Guatemala if I did not live here.

Happy Birthday,
Marty

Hi folks....


Back numbers on US stamps are applied using aniline inks (water soluble) and are found mostly on newer coils.

Nice pic, nr.

Take note of the middle stamp. That often happens when soaking these stamps and I have found it to be more common with this particular color of ink. The individual dots of ink actually move around on the wet stamp. Peeling, rather than sliding the stamp off of the paper will help to reduce this effect. However, soaking these back numbers is so very unpredictable, anything can happen even when taking every precaution.

I had forgotten about the 4 digit numbers. Hmm, now I wonder if there may even be some 3 digit numbers.

Marty

Now, that is really interesting. I looked at quite a lot of stamps recently (against bright light) but I don't have any sure hits (a few possible back numbers which I will have to remove carefully in the near future).

nr-notrare, which series of definitives can those back numbers be found on?

AFAIK, the transportation series is one of them.

Regards,

George

Hi khj,

my birthday is a couple of days back - Feb. 13. However, when I look at my profile it shows my age to be 13?! Oh well, I tried to change that but I keep getting error messages. Well, I guess I'll live with that - my real age is 50 :-)

Regards,

George

Well, then, belated happy birthday! Yeah, your birthday showed up in the Forum as March 13. I think you can go change your profile. If not, just send a note to the administrators.

George, note that Lindner makes a product for water-activated gum that claims to do exactly what you are looking for - it is supposed to leave all of the gum on the stamp, retaining the control number on the back. As Lindner is a German product, I'm certain it was developed with German stamps in mind. I don't know, perhaps it works with the US stamps too.

http://tinyurl.com/yfvqpho

Ryan

Hello Ryan,

thanks for your posting. Yes, I got the Lindner stamp remover too. I have not tried that one yet - another project for the future. I tried out the UHU/Prinz one (which is available in the US, too) with a very mixed result. Maybe I did not let it settle long enough. I guess I'll have to try that out on some cheap stamps before I go for the real thing.

I talked to the Lindner people at a recent stamp show and they did not seem to be overly convinced of their rather expensive product - i.e. they said it is possible that it would not work with quite a few stamps.

Regards,

George

I tried the Lindner stamp remover today. I used a 94c airmail stamp for that, as that one is never coming off it's backing paper in regular warm or hot water.

First of all - the instructions on the Lindner bottle claim that the fluid dissolves the gum of self-adhesives. And that you should leave the stamp in the fluid for 15 mins - if it does not come off then for 24 hours.

Ok, that certainly rules Lindner out for saving back numbers as the gum is dissolved. However, I wanted to know if it can be used for those tricky self-adhesives which don't move in hot water. Well - it works. It took a couple of hours and I had to rub the rest of the backing paper off. Benzine works better - in that fluid you just leave the stamp sitting for about 10 - 15 minutes and the envelope or whatever can be pulled off.

In both cases the back of the stamp remains sticky and much of the gum is dissolved or washed off. So those two fluids don't work for back numbers.

I might try the Lindner fluid on a few very tough cases of stamps not even moving in benzine. I got very few stamps which defy all attempts to remove them from their envelopes.

Since the Lindner fluid is pretty expensive, I don't really think it can be recommended. Well, maybe I still find a new use for it where everything else fails.

Regards,

George

I had not seen any recent back (counting) number coils and assumed the USPS was no longer printing these numbers.
But, I just received these yesterday and was quite surprised to find them. While removing the stamps from the envelope, the 5 cent 2002 back number was nearly ruined and I scrabbled to salvage it. The 10 cent Clock and the 42 cent Flag are 2008 issues. This confirms that the USPS is still printing the numbers. Both coil strips of 4 are the 10 cent Clock so I only scanned one strip to show the face side.






Marty

Hi Marty,

thanks a lot for sharing. This is highly interesting for me, as I have a lot of back numbers from various countries - however, I never found a US back number. Seeing the very light print of the back numbers you posted, I suppose you normally can't see those when you're holding an envelope against a light source, correct? This probably makes it really tough to save such a back number, as it is a bit unrealistic to use the detergent (or removal fluid) method on every stamp which could possibly have a back number.

Further thoughts on this are very welcome.

Regards,

George

P.S.: I currently found back numbers on stamps of the following countries: Germany, German Democratic Republic, former West Berlin, Sweden, France, Poland, Spain (although those are usually printed on older stamps and don't come off), Hungary, Switzerland and possibly one or two others I can't recall right now. There are back numbers on stamps from Italy and Luxembourg, but I have not yet found any myself. If you have any info on back numbers on other countries' stamps - I am also looking for such info.

Hi George,

I found the dark color ink numbers when attached to a plain white envelope while holding the stamp up to a bright light. But none of the stamps I posted yesterday were detectable prior to soaking. I'm sure the dark colors of the stamp design were a factor in hiding the numbers since I could not detect a single number prior to removing the stamps from paper.

After coming across the first number, I was much more careful with the other stamps. Since the majority of the numbers are printed on the adhesive rather than the stamp, I did not immerse any in water. What I tried is a new technique for me in removing non self adhesive stamps. I place a water soaked paper napkin on a flat surface. Then I lay the envelope piece on the wet napkin, stamp side up and check it frequently to see when the envelope paper is fully damp. The stamp often does not even look wet. I then carefully peel the envelope paper from the back of the stamp. It does not alway give good results but I have managed to retain about 70% of these back numbers. This process, can occasionally result in a small thin.

I have also started to experiment with running tap water for 1-2 seconds on the envelope side only and then after waiting about 10-15 seconds, I attempt to peel the envelope from the stamps. The main trick is to only moisten the paper to release the envelope paper without actually dissolving the adhesive.

There may be other countries that apply identical back numbers but I don't know of any. The purpose of these numbers was to determine how many stamps remained on a large roll of coil stamps, particularly if the roll was partially used. It is especially useful for bulk mailers who use the 3,000 and 5,000 stamp coil rolls. This is why a more accurate term for these USA numbers is "back counting numbers".

Hi Marty,

thank you for your further explanations.

One thing I wanted to mention is the method for removing stamps with back numbers from envelopes:

You said, that your "success rate" is around 70% with occasional thins. Now, I personally would consider this to be below my expectations. Thus, I have improved my method a bit. I now get more than 95% perfect removals - the unsuccessful attempts are mostly due to very thick paper (or postcards which can't be "split up" enough to soak properly).

You might want to try this yourself: dishwashing liquid (it is best to take an "eco" brand, as some regular ones can contain citric acid which may discoler stamps slightly) in a 1:10 or 1:20 watery solution and a Q-Tip work perfect for me. I use the Q-Tip to brush the solution (until the whole area behind the stamp is shining wet) on the back side of the envelope and wait for 40-60 seconds. With a little practice, you can remove almost all of your stamps with a perfect back number and no envelope rest remaining.

It is best to practice on a few regular stamps without back numbers first.

And yes, you are right - those back numbers have the same purpose all over the world - with one possible exception being the old Spanish stamps, as each one of those was numbered individually for whatever reason.

Regards,

George