Ripped Up Cover, Would You Keep Or Just Get The Stamps Off.

Wanted to get some opinions, Ripped up cover, would you keep or just get the stamps off? I've seen posts where people say to leave the stamps on cover whenever possible, but what about in this situation?
What would you do?

Like you would feel guilty in removing the stamps, so I typically find someone else who will take the item and remove my dilemma.
Don

i know people will disagree but in THIS case I would take them off

This I do, also.
retain a scan of the original item.

I would remove - IMO that cover is beyond recovery.

Sitting on the fence ....
First, I would very carefully unfold the bent-over portions. It looks like some of the return address panel is bent down and the UR corner is folded back. The point being, I think the cover is more complete than what is shown in the scan.

Then, I would re-evaluate. I might even consider popping open the back seams and doing a re-folding of the left, top, and right sides by a small amount to salvage a better-appearing, but reduced front.

I would not be in any rush to soak it.

The bent over portion of the return address you mention is hanging on by a thread, but is still there. Gives it a -slight- improvement. I may be leaning towards soaking it, I've been thinking of expanding into pre-cancels in the next year or two and this would be one I don't already have...

Umm..yes you do, on cover as well
By removal you are choosing entropy.
Probably common as singletons, on cover not so.

However, it is undeniably your choice.

Would be a nice article in a Chicken thematic?

I normally shout that stamps should be retained on covers/documents, but in this case, I would probably soak them off or at the very least trim down to a manageable and aesthetically improved "piece"... unless it is important that the context of the sender/addressee be retained.

rod, you are correct, I have some other covers from the same business that i've posted and one does have a racine pre-cancel. but that cover is much nicer, more interesting, and not under similar consideration. When I said I didn't have the racine pre-cancel I meant sitting in a stock book next to the other pre-cancels.

Those are classified as "CLASSIC" precancels by precancel collectors who, in general, are not cover collectors. These are RACINE, WISC precancel type L1E on Sc# 300 @ $ 0.20 each.

Interesting,
I thought about that prior, possibly because of their very nature,
easily manufactured (covers) without evidence of tying to the covers.

Thank you for the information Hal, amazing how much debate can be had in the stamp collecting world over a 40 cent item, that's what makes this hobby so fascinating. Not to drag it out I have come to a conclusion utilizing some combined advice. For now the cover is safe until such time as I collect enough pre-cancels to make it worth while to start printing out pages and mounting stamps. I'll probably trim one neatly to keep as a spare in case something goes horribly wrong with the soaking of the other. In the mean time maybe I'll take Rod's advice and put together an exhibition on early 1900 chicken brooder covers, I'm sure it'll be a first (just kidding).

In general, older postal history items are worth considerably more than the soaked value of the stamps. Even damaged, this is better than a 40 cent item. Soaking it will lose value.

understood John, thank you

It really depends on one's own point of view coupled with how knowledgeable that point of view may be. Here are three ugly covers more damaged than the one you, OP, show in your post, yet none are soaked for the stamps nor tossed into the recycle bin.

The first one can't even provide an collectible quality stamp if soaked.

The second one can provide one collectible stamp somewhat better than a space filler.

The last cover no longer has the stamps on it, and yet it is still being saved.








Funny but most folks would not want a clean, undamaged cover from the Hindenburg crash mail carried aboard. They would cherish what I showed above.

I have a friend who refused to purchase a crash cover from a well known crash because he said there was not enough left of the cover to calculate the exact rate for his rate exhibit of the stamps on the crash cover. The cover was returned to sender as the address was burned off. He also said that exhibits were judged on the quality of the condition of postal history and the cover did not look pristine.

Here using the SCF image cropper shows even as a piece, not a full cover, it beats two single stamps in a stockbook or album page:


You could even mount it this way (with or without cutting) to put the emphasis on the stamps:


Me, I'd leave it as is until a better example comes into my possession, then pass this one along.