A Question About Stamps That Can't Be Soaked

Hello again.

I just have a quick question regarding soaking. I am very new to stamp collecting and soaking, I have soaked about 50 over the last few days, and that is about all the soaking I have ever done.

I have found out the hard way, that some stamps can't be soaked. So my question is, what exactly do you do with non-soakable stamps?

Is there some kind of other process? or does the stamp just remain on the paper forever?

I have seen in cartoons and things, that you can steam open letters and things, but I'm not going to start taking physics lessons from cartoons just yet, and thought I would ask you guys.

Thanks.

JavkBrown, welcome! Before someone answers who knows a bunch more about this, let me give you one hint. Older stamps, the ones with so-called "water activated" gum, will soak fine, genarally spoken. The trouble is with the newer stamps, the self-sticking ones. Please hold off on these till you know more!
This problem has been talked about lots before; please search previous threads!

Peter

If a stamp won't come off by simple soaking techniques I would just leave it on the paper, let it dry and crop the paper close enough to leave a pleasing margin around the stamps perforations. You can always try soaking it again later as you gain experience with different techniques. But what you can't do is fix a damaged stamp once you've tried to force it off of the paper. Better to be safe.

Here is an article that another member here (WT1) posted some time ago: http://www.rpsc.org/video/soakaps.pdf

Hi JackBrown.

Very basic answer. There are some very good threads on this topic.

Basically there are two types of gum on self adhesive stamps or peel and stick stamps. One is water based gum and the other is oil based gum.

The oil based gum will come off paper by using lighter fluid and covering the back of the stamp with scentless talcum power. We do not as yet have oil based gum in Australia but the USA does and some other countries.

Modern water based gum (2006 to now) needs to have very warm water with a couple of drops of detergent and soaked for about 20 to 30 mins. Once the stamp the on paper is soaked you flex the paper at the corner of the stamp. The corner of the stamp should come away from the paper. By grabbing the corner of the stamp with thumb and pointing finger you gently pull the stamp off by going towards the back end of the stamp.

There are only 2 sets of Australian self adhesive stamps I have trouble with and they are both from 2009 and they are Micro Monsters and Corrugated Landscapes. The water based gum will not soften and the paper the stamps are made of is as thin as. We are lucky to get 1 in 30 stamps. We have a heap of them at present and as a last resort I have put them in the freezer over night and will pour boiling water over them and see what happens. If this does not work it is in the bin with them and good bye to them before they drive me nuts.

All stamps that are hard to get off paper by the collector should have the paper trimmed as you have mentioned. It is the best way when you have 1 or 2 of the same stamps to choose from in your pile of collectible stamps.

Thanks very much for the helpful answers. I will search for the threads on this topic. Lets see if I can get my success rate a little higher next time round.

Hi JackBrown

In this part of the forum, half way down the page you will see a thread called "We Close our Eyes & Still See Stamps". Half way down page 6 there is some images of taking stamps off paper and some talk about the same.

Hope it is helpful. KGV

You can use the Pure Citrus spray deoderant or Bestine to remove the stamp from the paper. The adhesive still remains but then you hav to use some talcum powder on the sticky part.

Sadly we know from very bad stamp club information about stopping fungus on stamps is to use talcum power on the top of your stock books to stop any moisture entering the stock book has destroyed many a fine stamp collection.

Over the years talcum power seems to have an oily stain type effect on the treated stamps and pages the stamps are on.

I just clip the paper around the stamp as close as possible and mount the thing with hinges. I'm not about to use chemicals, talc powder or otherwise. It's not like the stamp will ever have any value in our lifetime anyway.

And if it does have any value, and that value is higher off-paper, somebody else can deal with dismounting it.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The Scott catalog now says that the catalog value for used stamps that are hard or impossible to soak is the same whether on-paper or off-paper, so that frees you up to just neatly trim them. (Careful not to nip any perfs, though!)