Stamps, Hinges, & Spit

Some people do and it is worse on mounts.

Someone could do remake of The Fly called The Hinge, where a genius is cloned from the DNA they found on an old hinge, but some of the hinge DNA gets included in the mix.
Over time he starts becoming more and more hinge-like --- folded up and sticky.

Best thread ever!

The remake could be called Jurassic Stamp.

I've found tiny shreds of something on the back of some used stamps, possibly tobacco. I'm sure some virus could survive on the back of a stamp but I have never heard of anyone even suspecting stamp licking has made them ill.

On a related matter, its not that unusual that, on a cover, one sees a fingerprint forever immortalized in the ink of the cancel.

If I recall correctly, in the case of one well-known fake cover, it immortalized the faker's fingerprints. This is, however, a normally occurring event, just not quite as common as saliva on the back of the stamp.

I just moisten my index finger with my tongue and then touch the small part of the hinge which I hold wich a pair of tongs. Then I repeat on the long part of the hinge to apply to the album. I've been doing this for a long time without ill effect.

Jack Kelley

I'm a licker! We've been licking stamps (and hinges) since probably close to 1840. Before they were hinged in an album, used stamps were licked and stuck to a letter. I HAVE seen stamps on cover that have become discolored, but I attribute that to the stamp's gum, rather than the licker. There are plenty of completely sound 175 year old covers out there.

I'd be more worried about the gum than the saliva - a la the OSTROPA sheet - but that would only apply to specific issues.

I, too, am a believer in "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" and I don't worry about a previous stamp's licker. If I do, I break out the other liquor.

I'm a licker, feel like I can better control the moisture that way. A light dab on the tongue followed by a dab on the back of my hand to get rid of any excess moisture and then apply to the stamp. I remember weekends licking so many hinges that I ended up with a little soreness on the tip of my tongue.

To touch on some earlier comments, I'm not aware of any viruses that are capable of still infecting people after extended periods outside of a host. The HIV virus, for example, can only survive for about 3 minutes outside of a body. Some hepatitis viruses are known to be able to survive a few weeks outside of a human host, but those are some of the hardiest. I'm not a doctor or epidemiologist, so take that with a grain of salt, but I did take a course on pathogens some time back.