Which Countries Have The Most Difficult Stamps To Soak?

Aside from the sacreligious and blasphemous self adhesives, which countries have the most difficult stamps to soak? I find myself challenged with stamps from the communist era (Romania, Poland etc). What kinds of gum were they using? Or was it just a case of slapping some glue on the back of the stamp and placing it on an envelope? It took me 3 "dosings" of extremely hot water to finish a batch of Polish stamps tonight!

Romania..wins hands down, no other country comes close

Perhaps the original postage stamps were OK
but the CTO's had gunk that resists all know solvents of man.

They just refuse a soaking, you mount with full "gum"
or trade them off.


I might add, "3 dosings of extremely hot water"
probably does more damage than leaving on the gum,
sad to say.
Hot water is a no-no in my book.

Some of the modern stamps from Spain can be impossible to soak off paper, too.

Are you talking about early Romania? Is it difficult because of the glue itself or the type of paper used?

The non-cto communist era romanian stamps I had were really frustrating. The paper was sort of thin and cheap. So, after the first batch I dealt with, I decided not to mess with a second and just put them in the album as is.

Yes, that's what I did.

The common offenders are the se-tenant postage dues of 1957
through to the definitives of 1967.
There are lots more.

It's the gum, with old gum arabic, you could soak till
the gunk became soft, then scrape it off with a keen blade,
not so the Romanian, it seems to remain like plastic,
and refuses to budge.

I can't say I have had much issue with Spain,
the modern self stick release well with the white spirits trick.

I can only hope that the Romanians and Poles used this gum to build bunkers and underground fortifications for the pending cold war of the time or in dentistry! I was soaking a lot of those Romanian "hotel stamps". I dont have my scott handy in front of me now so I couldn't tell you the number. Also, the "Polish Eagle" series of definatives were just as bad!

Dear Ajnabii,
Have you never considered simply not doing it?
Cut carefully and neatly around the stamp and have it 'on a piece'. This usually results in the stamp being worth slightly more.
To soak any stamp is to offer the potential of damage, plus you are usually losing some of the cancel. if you leave it on the piece you can include the cancel in it's entirety.

And what about early Austria stamps ?
That gum is impossible to remove

Haven't had too much experience with early Austria, but the ones from the teens are horrible to remove. My most dreaded countries - USSR and DDR. The either stay on or thin when given extra persuation I've found 1960s to 1980s Poland fairly easy to remove myself, but that's just me.