Tutorial - Modern Used Self Adhesive Stamp Removal

I've received so much help, advice and enjoyment from this site that I thought it was my turn to try and help out a bit and make a little tutorial showing how I remove the modern US self adhesive stamps from envelopes without damaging them. Hope this helps someone out.

Here goes nothing:

I wish I knew how many used self adhesive stamps I've ruined in the past by soaking them in water, carefully trying to peel them from the paper and then finishing them off by using my thumb to try and push all the excess gum off the back of the stamp. Many times, I ended up with a thin piece of paper that rolled itself up into a cone and refused to stay flat. Other times, remaining gum would stick to another stamp and ruin that one as well. Very frustrated, I just gave up.

With some help from here and a little practice, I've been using 2 items to flawlessly (for the most part) remove these used self adhesive stamps from the envelopes. Here's how I now do it:
Tools:
1 can of Pure Citrus air freshener purchased at Home Depot
1 small bottle of Johnson and Johnson baby powder.



The subjects:



First thing to do is lay out a piece of paper towel to absorb the over spray.
Next lay the stamps face down on the paper towel - This is important as too much wetness on the face of the stamp can cause the newer spray type cancels to run. On the other hand, red cancels actually don't run at all like they do when soaking in water.



Now, lightly spray the back of each of them. Just enough so they are covered. You'll be able to see through the envelope at this point and see the stamp outline. When I'm doing this for myself, I'll usually spray 10-15 stamps at a time.



Wait about 30-45 seconds or so,if possible, lift up the stamp and just kind of peel the paper from the stamp. Not the stamp from the paper. Doing it this way helps minimize putting a bend in the stamp on the corner. Try not to handle the front of the stamp on the cancel as you may smudge it if it's too wet. Once you get it pulled back a few millimeters, you can just use your fingers to grab enough of the stamp to prevent creasing it. It will easily lift right off the envelope.



Next, if the stamp curled a bit, it's not a bad idea to curl it back the opposite way to try and get them as flat as possible. Set the stamps off to the side, face down. You'll notice that you can see a white square or rectangle in the center of the stamp while it's still damp. When the stamp dries enough, the white square will fade away.
Once the stamp looks like a normal stamp on the back again, it's ready for the baby powder. This usually takes 30 minutes or so.

I use a little tray to dump a little powder in a time - yeah I know what that looks like :)





Then, just dip the back of the stamp in the pile so just a little gets on the back of stamp. Use your fingers to spread it around the entire back, give it a couple of flicks to get the excess powder off and you're ready to put your stamps in your album.




And there ya have it

Great Mike and thanks for sharing.

Like you, I lost many stamps from mixtures and incoming mail due to the self adhesive stamps.

I heard about the lemon and powder method before but this is the first step-by-step tutorial.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Nice tutorial and unlike the other method, you're a lot less likely to burst into flames

Thanks Mike. After all that I bet you smell really sweet!

Odd as it may seem, the Pure Citrus spray is flammable. Don't spray near open flame.

Thanks so much for this. Since I am just returning to the hobby after many years away this will save me a lot of frustration. How did I ever get anything done without the internet?

This may be destined to be a classic. I had pretty much accepted the trim it an leave it on the paper approach. I will try this - great post.

Have you had success in this technique with 2012 used US Stamps? I note the stamps included in your demonstration are much older, when different adhesive technologies were in use. This APS list suggests that the majority of 2012 stamps are not "soakable", so I just wonder if the results would be the same for later issues.

http://stamps.org/New-Issues-2012

I guess the short answer is to try it on a few expendable stamps and see what happens.

Yes, works the same with all stamps I've tried it on up to at least 2012 and all the National Park Airmail series.

I recently went through over 10 pounds of US modern kiloware to catch up on the modern issues. This process worked on everything.

Any used stamp on my site after around 1999 was removed using this method - http://home.comcast.net/~zeppelin33...s/index.html

here's a few from 2012

This is a really great way to do it and I've seen this method before but I have a few questions if you don't mind?
1. Does the baby powder get messy? like if you would place on in a black backed Vario page?
2. Would a hinge stick to it?
3. Can you avoid the use of talc all-together?

Also, I really really like to look at those spectrum eagles! They certainly are eye-catching.

1. It can get a little messy if you use too much. After a few stamps, it is usually all over your fingers. The back absorbs it but some will get on the front. It wipes right off though. I usually just wipe the front across my shirt.

2. Hinges stick just like a normal stamp

3. Not really because the powder adheres to the gum making the stamp no longer sticky. The talc doesn't remove the gum. It just completely covers it but you'd never know it was even there.

After you pull the stamp off the paper with the Pure Citrus, the stamp is as sticky as before it was used.

And yes, the orange smell completely disappears on it's own.

I wonder what the 5 year effect will be. Maybe the combination of the self adhesive, orange spray and baby powder will cause the stamp to morph into some alien life form jumping out of my album screaming "FOREVER" !

Have you tried this on cardboard (priority mail boxes)? I have some nice stamps people have sent me on boxes through the APS rotation programs and I assume it will be impossible to remove them without damage.

Yup, but the spray doesn't soak through the cardboard as well as paper. I've successfully done it but more often than not, you'll have to spray the front.

The good side of that is you don't usually have to worry about smudging the spray cancels on packages and like I mentioned earlier, the red cancels you often find on packages don't run or smudge at all

Nice tutorial, is there any lingering smell on the stamps after the process has been completed?

No Brad, not that I can tell