Need Help With What To Do With Stamps That Got Flooded By Hurricane Harvey

Please help. My Mom passed away and I inherited her 90+ yr stamp collection. Hurricane Harvey hit and all went underwater... What do I do now? Have thousands of stamps that are just soaked and no time to deal with them...Can I freeze... for months? been trying to dry a few thousand a day...but am just overwhelmed...way too many to deal with.

Any suggestions...other than throwing them in a clothes dryer, like my hubby suggested? Do not need mold in Houston in the house... Thanks Connie

Were these stamps mounted in albums? Were they mint?

Dehumidifier in a closed room with circulating fan(s) above is how I dry things.

Very quick and easy.

Thank you! I have a bathtub full of wet goop! I do not know about stamps; some are full sheets of unused stamps; some in books, binders; envelopes stuffed with cancelled stamps. Collected from 1900's on, from all over the world.I have been trying to take the ones out of binders and laying them on paper towels with a cutting board on top to keep flat. The first batch curled up badly. Should I try to wash the glue off? I've just been sliding them off the paper and laying them flat. Should I keep the wet ones wet or let them dry in the books then try to deal with them later? One binder is about 8" thick and I put a hair dryer to dry the pages and stamps went flying out everywhere! I will head to Lowes to get a dehumidifier. Thank you for the advise. Sincerely, Connie PS: If I find any beer stamps, Ill let you know.

Spread everything out as much as possible. Open up and expose what you can. Turn on dehumidifier. You have other things to do. Best of energy to your families.

Goodness me, I feel for you.
I thought of that very thing, when news broke.
You would not be the only one I fear.

We were (nearly) flooded a few months ago, and anxiety ramped up,
as the level grew.

Advice:
Best drying books.... The budget drying man's sandwich.

A book/s.
2 sheets of scrap book paper, white.
1 A4 or similar, sized "Freezer bag"

The sandwich= 1 sheet of scrap book paper, lay the freezer bag on top
tamp any wet stamps of excess moisture with clean tea towels, lay the stamps face up on the freezer bag, then the second scrap book page on top.

Place the sandwich amongst the pages of the book, and leave for 7 days.

They will come out as flat as a halibut, and will not stick to the freezer bag.

Choose the most valuable /desirable stamps first, and work from there
Come to grips you will lose some.

Wishing you the best, from Australia.

Thank you for the advise. I am trying to lay out about 500 stamps a day. I still have a bathtub full of wet stamps. I just do not have more room to lay them out! I did start with what I thought were the oldest by taking the stamps out of a book, they seem to have done pretty good. Some of the sleeves have dried already so I will have to re-wet them to get them unstuck...what a mess. Two things: 1: should I try to remove as much glue as possible? ie: wash the stamps before laying out to dry? 2: does it matter if I lose the cancellation on the envelope? Still on the stamp; but the envelope part is a mess - I have not been trying to save those. Most of the collection were in books in little shelf sleeves but Mom had thousands loose in just envelopes; so I come up with a hand full of slimy stamps. I am trying to keep them damp until I can get them laid out but this is going to take weeks! I haven't a clue which are desirable or valuable. Will try to save all, then do an inventory...

So sorry to hear bout your loss. Hard to imagine how to deal with a household that is flooded. I'm sure you are dealing with a lot more than just the stamp collection.

Don't worry about the curling. Right now your concern is drying them out before they mold.

The mint stamps will never be mint again. It is fine to wash the rest of the glue off. Unless you have some very rare stuff, it's not going to make much difference in the value.

The covers, again unless they are particularly rare, are not going to be recoverable. The stamps should be fine, just treat them like any other used stamp.

Yes, you can freeze paper products until you have time to deal with them. See:

https://www.archives.gov/preservati...-damage.html

good luck.

OH! I lucked out, no flooding in my house...I rescued these from my brother's home that took on 4' of water! He wanted to throw them away and I wouldn't let him. We just lost Mom a year ago August 25th; so cannot stand to throw away her collection! They are mine now; just trying to save as many as I can... He is gutting his house - I guess a tub full of wet stinky stamps isn't so bad... I just don't want to do anything wrong with them. I haven't a clue about stamps. Grandma was in Russia when she started the collection, fled Russia during the Revolution; my Mom was born in Harbin, Manchuria and married my Dad in Shanghai during WWII. My Dad was born in Mississippi; so they had an interesting life.

I agree when overwhelmed don't try for perfection at this time. Don't worry about curling at this time. Get them dry asap to keep from molding. Then buy some drying books and find some Scott catalogs. Then take your time finding the most valuable, soak them in small batches and put in the drying books under weight. I would also purchase some stock books to organize the recovered stamps. Hopefully some of the older and more valuable stamps have been improved with now clean backs and no hinges. When selecting which stamps to soak pay attention to condition and pass on the stamps that are torn or have thins unless very valuable. It sounds like you have a big project a head of you, good luck.

If you are looking for drying books quick try some water color paper books from walmart or art and craft stores. Might even be cheaper than an offical drying book.

Hi, I have no experience with water color paper books from the commercial store mentioned or art and craft stores, but would suggest you test to make sure the color does not run! I guess water color paper does not run the color, but test it first just to make sure!

Stampmaster

Let me guess ,most stamps are not worth the time and effort to save . You need a experience person to sort thru the wet pile and decide were to put your time to save .