Archival?...safe?...what Does It Mean?...

I searched for this before posting and couldn't find anything, so please don't be mad if it's come up before.

This is a fascinating study by the APS on materials that come into contact with stamps directly or indirectly and lays to rest some myths. I'd like to encourage everyone to read it. It's short.

http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/pc...Plastics.pdf


-IBFS

IBFS, interesting article. In the article the writer refers to Scott at times. I use Scott mounds mostly, but sometimes the supplier substitutes them with Prinz. I suppose Prinz makes the mounds for Scott, and they are safe?

Peter

Your link was posted previously ... but a long time ago (2011):

https://goscf.com/t/18980

The argument about archival quality albums and storage devices typically comes down to the question of how long do you expect your stamps to last. Some collectors prefer not to worry about the next generation, as no one in the family is interested in stamps, so what happens to the collection after the owner passes is typically not an issue for them.

Others prefer to buy the absolute best mounting and storage methods available hoping to hand down their collection from generation to generation.

At some point you have to weigh the value of the collection against the cost of covering all the bases with long term archival safe storage methods. Depending upon what one collects, sometimes the value v. cost is just not there.

Another problem lies with the group of collectors who may acquire old albums from others but not wish to go through the motions of removing and/or remounting those stamps, so the older the album, the more likely it will not be on acid free paper or have archival safe properties, so faster deterioration will presumably result.

In current times, virtually all paper made today is acid-free. Since "archival safe" can mean different things to different people, how much one wishes to spend on those features varies from collector to collector.

Modern collections are another issue entirely. PSA issues, for example, have no long term track record to establish whether or not the stamps will deteriorate over time because of the breakdown in the adhesive (i.e. over decades or even centuries). Complicating modern issue collecting is also those philatelic items that are made with recycled paper and so on, suggesting that virtually every product will have a different long term storage life.

I don't have all the definitive answers to these questions, but neither does anyone else, so we just to have to do the best we can within the budget we have to work with and hope that the storage methods we select will serve us well.

Very sensible advice wt1.

I have my Pre-1940 Baltic Republics as well as Bohemia-Moravia and Slovakia (1939-1945) stamps in two old (and huge!) French Yvert et Tellier albums; my Pre-1959 German collection in a Barcelona printed album from around 1960 and my Pre-1950 Dutch & Scandinavia collections on two Amsterdam printed albums, from mid XX century.

The German stamps are on the albums, since who knows when, as I bought my sister in-law grand father's collection. I started usin the other albums by the mid 90's, when I was given them by an old collector fellow. I use hinges, and all my stamps seem to be sound. My collections, are of used stamps
Personally, I think that old albums, give more value to a collection than detract.
For my newly mounted Topical and Postal History collections I use good quality sturdy DIN A-4 pages, that I print by myself and buy good plastic sleeves.

Anyway, I'm European, and very European minded; so, I enjoy oldfashioned things.

Not all modern papers can be deemed acid free. Cheaper machine made papers made from wood pulp will contain lignin. Recycled papers should be avoided totally as all sorts of previously used papers will have gone into their make up. In the past most papers were made from cotton rag entirely and so the more expensive vintage albums are likely to contain acid free paper leaves. The best artist quality papers, which are still hand made, and expensive, will be truly archival as these are made by hand in frames entirely from cotton rag.

Modern machine made artist quality papers come in all qualities from archival and acid free (which are not the same) to cheap wood pulp grades which are definitely neither archival or acid free. If you are after papers that will last (like the stuff the old master drawings are on) then only archival quality will do. However, even when the old masters used the best papers their ink drawings still developed small holes in the paper. This was a result of using inks such as oak gall ink that had a high acid content and which also changed colour as it aged. In contrast inks used by the Egyptians thousands of years ago have bonded with the surfaces used to draw on and are still readable today.

So even having ensured we have the best archival quality paper we can afford, the printer ink we use to print out our pages may not be archival and may, at the very least, fade away. But nothing lasts forever and ultimately, as wt1 mentioned, we can only proceed according to our own expectations, and pocket.

And then stick our stamps in plastic.

Terry

Edited for typos. TC.

I have never understood why there is not more attention given to neutralizing stamps left of paper/covers. These are at far more risk than stamps that have been removed and mounted in albums; the paper they are attached to is often lower quality and nowhere near close to being 'archival'. Just in my lifetime I have stamps that I left on paper and now show signs of foxing or other acid symptoms.

A search on 'paper conservation' is a bit scary but enlightening. Many notable leaders in the paper conservation field end up being advocates of digitization as a preservation strategy! Yikes, not a confidence builder that our beloved paper artifacts stand a good chance at surviving far into the future. We can be good stewards by controlling environmental conditions but paper is a very, very difficult thing to preserve over long periods of time.
don

That's a good point about on-cover material. Also, your target time frame is an issue. I would think your biggest worries would be dust (use dust jackets) and humidity. Then I would worry about any thing touching the stamps, hinges, paper, ink and your time frame is probably decades before you would see a problem. Mounted stamps (modern mounts) in albums with dust jackets and you're probably set for life.

The time frame is definitely a consideration. I'm not too worried since I'm 66 and my family has no interest in my collection.
Tom

This is a good point and it took me some time to think about how to respond to it.

All of my mounts are Scott mounts in old packages that say "Scott". For whatever reason, when I run out and have to buy new ones, do they still make them out of the same stuff?

Alot of those old 70's "tubular" mounts are starting to wrinkle in many places in my collection and will have to be replaced soon. It is really the preservation of the stamp that I'm concerned about for whoever gets it next in whatever way.


-IBFS

I sort of agree with wt1 there is a cost vs value to it all. Right now I feel I am at best enjoying my hobby. The quality/cost of the methods we have available for storing stamps will assure that the albums we are making now should at least out live our lifetimes. The people that put a little thought into archiving their collections easily will be able to have them still be viable 40 or 50 years down the road.

I don't think that the people producing the stamps ever thought too much about longevity of their product. And at some point even the paper the stamp is made with will have problems. But over time newer processes will be made available cheaply enough for the everyday collector to hope to have something to leave to another generation or two.

I just don't have the money to be like Disney and freeze myself hoping for a cure that may never come. But I do think that my collection one day will live long enough to brighten up someone else or at least drive them batty trying to figure out -- Just what was he thinking of when he put this together.