Did I Mess Up Too Badly By Soaking Old Stamps?

Hi everyone,

I have been soaking, drying, sorting and flattening stamps for a number of days now, I had decided that since almost every packet of stamps that I had from the 1960's - 1970's contained stamps that were stuck inside to just go ahead and open all the packets and sort the stamps by country. That is all done, now I am working on identifying those stamps that I have processed already.

I still had an old album with stamps collected in the 20's and 30's - so I decided to break it down so I could identify the stamps and preserve what was in the album better since they are all hinged in that album. I started cutting the stamps out, oh my gosh, I cut the top portion off of a 1 penny stamp from england because 2 pages were stuck together - aaack! The perforations are gone off the top but I did manage to not cut the design of the stamp. Not sure if that stamp is worth keeping or if I should move it to my "damaged" pile of stamps.

So, much to my surprise, some of the old stamps appear to have disintegrated in the water when they soaked, some were so thin I was horrified I would break them just by touching them.

I do not have a pair of stamp tongs, I should get a pair - it is difficult to manage the wet stamps with my fingers, I am thinking it will be twice as hard with tongs, but once I get the hang of it I suppose it will be ok.

Does anyone have any advice about dealing with breaking down an older album? If so, please share with me. Thank you.

Did not know quite where to post this so came back to this forum, Thank you, Julie

One thing at a time.
Slow and easy, do it.

1. Your mistakes, yep, we have all done it, I cut the top off a stamp removing a page with a scalpel.
Every mistake, you become a better collector.

I bought a collection from dealer, his staff cut a valuable mini sheet, by cutting the page to save me postage. (I took it on the chin)

The thing is, there are billions of stamps, a few less is not generally going to matter.

Speed is generally is the forecast of doom.
Take it one page at a time, if the album is not worth keeping, cut out a page (look both sides first) then soak (cold water)

or......

Buy yourself a set of tongs (The long pointy ones) once mastered, these fellows will serve you for life.
Don't listen to others that suggest otherwise, the long pointies are the ones, (about $14 Prinz) they are dangerous, use at the desk only, and don't carry them in a pocket.

With a set of long pointies, you can slip one blade under the stamp, and sever neatly the hinge, no need to soak, and you can the inspect the back, for what you do next.

Stamp tongs are an absolute must. I prefer the long, pointy ones too. You will do much less damage with tongs than you would do with your fingers. The tiny little perf tips can easily get bent by handling with fingers when wet, and this reduces value. Tears can also happen easily when handling wet stamps with fingers. Handling stamps with your fingers will also transfer skin oils to the stamp paper, and this should be avoided.

Well I absolutely concur with my colleagues - you must get tongs & practice with them. There is no other way. It has probably been decades since I touched a stamp with my bare fingers...

As for soaking - you must also practice. I'd highly suggest you start with cheap stamps - from the '60s/'70s era. Practice & experiment - with the time it takes to have the stamp come free to various drying & pressing methods. All stamps will behave a bit differently. Don't forget to change the water often - it will become filled with 'gum' & fresh, clean water will work better.

Only when you're very comfortable with cheap stamps should you be attempting older ('20s/'30s) stamps.

Did you mess up badly?? That depends on which stamp you sliced up! (Hopefully you've learned the lesson we all have & will move carefully w/sharp cutting instruments from now on!)

Thank you so much Rod22, classic coins and mdroth for responding to this thread. I appreciate everything each of you has said here. I have ordered a pair of Prinz tongs, pointy ones, and they will come in about a week. It will take practice, like you all have said, but will use them once I have them.




This is just what I have been doing ever since I first showed up in this forum, I had about 100 packets that someone had collected from the 60/70's and have soaked, dried and pressed all those stamps which I am working on identifying now at this point in time. I had thought I had soaked plenty and went ahead and attacked this album, which is old yellowed, and is now half cut apart.

I guess I goofed doing this soak, I had too many stamps in at the same time and could not get the stamps out of the water quickly enough - and to my absolute horror some of the stamps appear to have lost their backing.




Thank you for that thought Rod - I hope I run into similar stamps again someday. It makes me sad to think I have destroyed something that old, I think I will leave the rest of this album alone for a while and just concentrate on assessing the damage to the batch of old stamps that I have drying overnight. I will wait until I have tongs and can use them proficiently before messing with the rest of this album.

Thanks to you all for your feedback, I do appreciate it very much. Julie

***removed white space***

Take you time to use the pointies.....after a few months it will be like catching a mosquito with a pair of chopsticks.

You will deftly be able to do about anything.

Pick up a stamp from a smooth table, a scanner platen, no fingers required (no bent perfs)



Open a #102 card in a trice, no fingers required....



Here is a 1920 album (98 years old)



I want the top centre stamp only...the green one



Slip one leg of the pointies underneath and BETWEEN the hinge........sever gently. No fingers required.



Voila...you have a nice stamp, without soaking




Consider.... Why waste time soaking stamp you will never use?

The less you mess with stamps the better off they will be.

Remove THEN soak , only the stamps you need, pass on to the next collector..or sell.

Keep at it ....

Caveat : some stamps, hinged by novices, are so glued to the page, only soaking will remove.

Thank you Rod, thank you, thank you...for the demo of the pointy stamp tongs - I hope I will be as good as you are with them someday. Speaking of severing hinges with tongs, there were some very old different looking hinges on this bunch of stamps, the hinges were made of very thick brown paper - not the light glassine paper that they generally used.

And this album was my mother-in-laws (both her and my husband are long one in the mists of time and my daughter, their progeny, could care less much to my dismay) which I believe she put together as a young girl in the 20's and continued for a few years into the 30's - it looked to me like some of the stamps had been affixed with glue to the pages (licked in other words). I don't know if that makes a difference in how the stamp soaks and whether the stamp will pull apart if it gets wet.

At any rate, thank you for the marvelous pictures! You are so clever and amusing, thank you so much Rod for your response!




I am hoping this will be the case! Thank you so much Rod! :)

Julie

Forgot to say I hope I haven't been too hard on the stamps I have already, I have been lusting after some albums I am thinking of buying on ebay, thinking I would break them down. Breaking down this album gives me a great idea as to whether that is something I want to get into at this time - it is more difficult that I was thinking it would be, the stamps have been affixed there for so many years! Thank you for giving me something to think about Rod! Not so sure that is such a good idea anymore. Julie

Morning all,

As a postal history collector, when I see an album or stock book or stock cards of nice used stamps soaked off cover, all I can think of is what fine postal history items were lost in the process? Ever notice that much of the older stamps still on cover at not in prime condition?

I need to add to this thread that this morning, once the stamps I soaked yesterday dried, they are in much better shape, even the very thin stamps that seemed to be too thin when wet are coming out nicely.

hoosierboy, some of the stamps in this album were used, some were not, not sure why. You said:




Not sure what you mean here, are you talking about the stamps that lost their backs? So far, those look like they are alright, maybe it was just the paper soaking off that I saw on thin stamps, not sure yet, must examine them closer. Or the postmarks? Please explain what history you are referring to so I can learn.

Thank you, Julie

I believe he is referring to them being left on their envelopes as the stamp together with its original envelope tell the "story" of its use. In your case, your stamps were cut off their envelopes and in packets with just the small area of envelope attached. There is no postal history to be lost there.

Thank you for that insight svensson, I appreciate it, I was worried that I had done something I shouldn't have regarding the old album. I do feel a little jumpy about it since it was pretty old. Thanks, Julie

When it comes to soaking a stamp, I suggest using warm distilled water to remove stamps that need to be removed from their envelope backings. Tap water contains many impurities that can degrade older stamps much more rapidly over time (especially if its heavily chlorinated) Don't use just any bottled spring water. Stick to distilled water only. Do only a few stamps at a time, watch them carefully as you soak them, and as soon as they become loosened from the envelope, take them out, and dry them right away. After I soak mine, I place them in a small wire mesh basket to air dry them and then once they are somewhat dry, I put them in a blotter book with a weight on top to endure that they are flattened out (usually a few hours). I then transfer them using tongs to a glassine envelope for storage until I either sell them or put them in an album for archive/display.

Hope this helps you.

Cheers,
E

I have made what feels like a tragic mistake when preparing the album for soaking, have learned another lesson, no more cutting with scissors on these kind of pages, I will soak the entire page from now on (that is what I did with the US pages which had stamps, not exactly sure how this happened, except the stamp is very close in color to the old yellowed paper of the stamp album, here it is:



Have been trying to locate this thing, not so sure it is a stamp? It says: "Ten Cents" across the top of the stamp, then in the ribbon thingy encircling the top of the image it says "United States" on the left and "Inter. Revenue" on the right. There is an image of a steamship which I was not able to locate in Scott under which is says "Series of 1898.", underneath that in large letters it says "Documentary" across the very bottom of the stamp (or whatever).

I think I made a sad and unfortunate mistake but am not going to beat myself up over this too bad, I am only human, and humans make mistakes. My job is to learn from the mistake, no more scissors near stamps for me.

OK, I have not searched elsewhere for this stamp,including this forum, so must get on trying to find out what this guy was.

Oh, and pariscollector, thank you for sharing your experience with me, I have been using water from my well, the water is good water as far as I am concerned, I drink it every day - and must say there is not a lot of mineral build up near the faucets and such, it is nice water as far as I can tell. Your point regarding distilled water is well taken however, I will have to look for it in town next time I make a trip in - I am done soaking stamps for a while so it is not critical that I have the water right away. Thank you for sharing with me, Julie

Remember the "back of the book."

Be very careful with those pointed tongs.

I use a Showgard 902 model.

redwoodrandy said:




Thank you so much for encouraging me to continue searching and not to forget the back of the book. I finally found the stamp, I have it identified as: US SC# R168 R15 10c dark brown and of low value for a used stamp. (Whew!)

And as for the pointy tongs, I will be as careful as I can be. I am slow - really I am - I know it looks like I was very hasty with this mistake above, but I am learning that stamps are very tricky little items, and one must pay attention at all times to them, they can wind up in some strange places if you are not careful.

Anyway, thank you for sharing the brand of your tongs, I will look them up.

Thanks so much, Julie