Need Help - How Do I Float These Dutch Indies Stamps?

Can anyone tell me how to float these stamps properly?


thank you for any advice
don

Hi Studebaker. What do you mean by float? Soaking?
If you want to soak them, be careful. Use only cold water and for as short a time as possible.

Peter

Don't soak them. I've ruined a few of those Dutch East Indies stamps before I learned my lesson. The ink is fugitive and may dissolve in water.

Don't soak them.

Robert

Yes, I would like to soak them off the cover and mount them in my album. But Scott's notes these stamps "...have water soluble inks and the designs will disappear when immersed in water".

Is there a way to soak them without water; or should I just trim them close and leave them on paper?
thanks
don

I always leave about 1-2 mm margin (sometimes larger) around the stamp and the cancel if I have to cut something from an envelope but still leave on paper. I use a mount cutter to keep the cuts straight, and make the corners perpendicular.

Robert

For me personally, I would leave them on cover.

My opinion of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I have a question on this. If the ink is water soluble, is it safe to use something like Stamp Lift Fluid, or would that be as harmful as the water? Ken

The advice to trim them neatly and leave on paper is the best ,why chance them with any chemical and messing them up.

The correct way to use stamp lift is to apply it sparingly from the back, which would be the inside of the envelope, using a small artists' brush. Do not submerge the stamp to soak it in the usual way. The object is to get the stamp lift to the gum and not through to the printed surface of the stamp. I have done this successfully many times. It just requires time and a little patience. Practice on something cheap or damaged.

Terry

I hope you haven't already done the nasty deed, those stamps are almost worthless off cover and on cover are of much more value to collectors. To wash them off those covers is sacrilege,

Pagoda