Removing Hinges From Mint Stamps And Stamped Envelopes

Hi! I have a bunch of mint stamps mounted on album pages that I recently purchased, but they are hinged. I want to remove them nicely but I'm not sure which is the proper metod.

And I have some stamped envelopes stamps which are hinged to. Is that type of paper resistant to water. I mean. Can I soak stamped envelopes stamps on water?

Two methods that work are the use of a stamp sweatbox (easy to make), and the careful use of Stamplift fluid. Use the sweatbox to remove stamps stuck to envelopes, and the Stamplift fluid to remove hinges from stamps and album pages without soaking. Information on both is available online.

Terry

It seems to me that the use of a sweatbox or Stamplift fluid are both rather more work than is needed and may result in unnecessary disturbance to that part of the gum that is still intact.

My method is to first carefully remove the hinge, with the stamp still attached, from the page. Then I turn the stamp over and carefully rub the back of the hinge, where it it sttached to the stamp, with the back end of my tongs. This generally breaks up the hinge glue a bit so that the hinge can be carefully peeled off the stamp. I would suggest practicing with lower-value stamps until you get a feel for it.

Q/ Why not just leave the hinge remains in place?

As the decades pass, for a variety of reasons (cycling of humidity & temperature, for example) they might just loosen, and fall-off on their own.

Meanwhile, they are on the back of the stamp/cover, which is rarely seen & admired.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

What I usually do when I remove a hinged stamp from a circuit book is carefully peel the hing and stamp away from the paper. Then I use a wet q-tip to apply water to the hinge remaining on the back of the stamp and then peel the hinge away from the stamp. It dries a lot quicker than doing a full stamp soak.

If you choose this method, I would amend 'peel' to 'cut the hinge with razor blade or exacto knife' and 'moistened (eg wet & then wrung out a bit) q-tip', but that's me.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Ok! Thank you. I'll try.