How To Protect My Stamps From Humidity

Hey I am new at stamps collecting and I did read somewhere that humidity is very bad for stamps and it will affect it's condition with time
so my question is there any simple tips to protect my stamps from humidity (I live in a very humid city)Like certain bags or anything like that

Hi,
Well, I know humidity, having lived north of Houston (Texas) for the last 32 years. I assume you live in Egypt, and frankly I'm surprised humidity is a problem. In my opinion, if your collection is kept in a climate controlled environment, humidity should not be a problem. In my house, humidity for most of the year is in the mid 40s, and I've never had a problem. Humidity measuring devices are inexpensive, and you would do well by picking one up and monitoring it regularly.

mobilman44 thanks for your reply, well to be more specific I live in a city called port said In Egypt and yeah I agree with you most of Egypt is not humid at all but without exaggerating I think my city is one of the most humid cities on earth all the time of the year , I really don't care much about problems like that but I found that many people mentioned humidity with the stamps so I had to ask for advice from more experienced users

Monitoring is great, you know when it is high, and you know when it is low...but it doesn't give you any options to do anything about it. Actually, you can't do much about it anyway. You can put a de-humidifier in the room with your stamps, but that is about your only choice.

Using any special bags to seal out moisture will only seal IN moisture and give mold and mildew a good chance to start. I'd recommend against that.

If your home has an air conditioner (I don't know how much they are used in Egypt, but I suspect they are used a lot) the humidity will be kept down to a workable level. You probably wouldn't have any problems in that case. If you don't have air conditioning, there isn't too much you can do to prevent humidity.

well it is easy here to sense the humid and it is more annoying than hot weather for sure, I Put my stamps in air conditioned room but I don't turn the air conditioner on all the day and just in summer so I need a permanent solution ...I was thinking about silica gel does it really work?

Silica gel only works for a time and then must be recharged...and replaced every so often. You recharge it by baking it in an oven at more than 220 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) for long enough to remove any moisture. When humidity is really high silica gel doesn't do much at all. So it really is not a solution. I assume that air conditioning is very expensive to run all day in Egypt...if that is the case, then there is really no solution for you in your area. You are pretty much at the mercy of the humidity. You could get rid of the stamps and collect tea cups...but that might not satisfy you either!

Sorry I don't have a solution for you, but the weather is bigger than either one of us.

Maybe you don't have a problem anyway. If the books in your home don't show any signs of decay then likely your stamps won't either.

I keep all my stamp material in a small (2 meters x 5 meters) and run a dehumidifier 24/7 from 01 April through 31 October and have not had any problem for over ten years.

Donald

Buck49: can you simply tell me how you store your stamps :)?
and thanks donald

For stamps that I keep in glassines or on small stock cards I use wooden cigar boxes (humidors). That works great. I buy them at tobacco/cigar store for $2-5 each. The store keepers are happy to sell their empty boxes for that price. They look nice on the shelf too.

Hi again,
Knowing what the humidity in the "stamp room" is (i.e. monitoring it) will give you the knowledge as to whether you have a problem or not, and how serious it is - or not. If the area is normally air conditioned, it may be much less of a problem than one might think. But, of course in your situation there may be times when the A/C (or heating) is not needed, but the humidity is still there.

Having the collection in a ventilated space might help a lot - as opposed to sealing it up somewhere.

I have a couple of safes in which I keep two large bags of desiccant to ward off humidity (as mentioned earlier). I "bake" these to recharge them periodically, and it has worked quite well over the years.

MikeQ nice Idea I will try to find cigar boxes somewhere near me

mobilman44: I use a4 pockets not sure about the material but I used it for arranging my papers long time ago and I put them in a wooden drawer....I will buy albums soon and keep any good collections on it and will get some silica gel or any good desiccant as you do and btw I will need your advice soon for some old topic you wrote about soaking and drying stamps

I have a dehumidifier in my house. I keep humidity between 40-50%.

you probably can't do this there I don't know but I keep my stamps in a big safe deposit box at the bank. It temp and humidity stays pretty the same all the time. When I want to up date or view I get a book out and when finished I take it back or I can use the meeting rooms there as well to go over them. A llittle expensive at $60.00 a year but worth it in the long run, but then again I'm a Newby Stamper.

I never had problems around Chicago and during the summers many times I leave the window open for a few days .Even during rain storms , we have central air but use it only a few days a year .The problem with collections are the ones left in a humid basement for a dozen years . One year is not enough time to cause damage in my opinion. But I have seen albums that were put in a basements for a few years at a local stamp auction firm and many were starting to get stuck .

Hey Floortrader, I grew up in Chicago (44-67) and certainly know about those damp basements. In my opinion, the problem is a combo of both dampness and lack of air circulation. Of course "time" plays a role in the situation as well, but having a collection in a room that is open and used and climate controlled should normally not be a problem for a stamp collection.

I live in a very dry area so the storage solutions I have may not help you at all. I just keep most of my extra stamps in glassine envelopes and the envelopes in cardboard boxes. I run air conditioning all day during the summer months and that prevents any humidity "spikes". This morning I had my carpets cleaned...and even though the house is filled with damp carpets the humidity is only 40%. Normally it runs from 20% to 30% or so in the summer.