Looking For Ideas On How To Get Unused 686 Pairs Unstuck.

I've been going through a box of stamps that I inherited and came across an envelope of unused Scott 686 pairs stuck together. Its a great example of how not to store unused stamps. The box the envelope was in probably hadn't been opened for 40+ years.

I'm guessing there are about 20 pairs in the "stack" and they are very much stuck together. Obviously, I could soak them and free them up but was wondering if there was a better way to minimize gum loss. Or will it even matter? I think a moment of silence is in order for the loss of these fine specimens. Mr. Harding doesn't seem to happy about it either.

Two choices come to mind...

#1 Sweat them apart in a sweat box, these would fit in a stamp-lift, in which case the gum looks will change and be considered "disturbed", not mint.

#2 Soak them but that would remove all gum...

A third option, I've never had any luck with is freezing them, perhaps someone else here can elaborate on that method.

In my opinion, soak them. The other methods will not give good results (in terms of gum condition).
Don

#3 Leave them alone. Not worth the time investment for salvaging less than $1 face of disturbed or no-gum postage.

Soak them.

I concur with Don and Rod. Soak them apart.

At least try freezing them first.

Costs you nothing but some time and has no real negatives.

If that doesn't work, then you can move to the one way decisions...

I never knew about the freezing technique until I read one of Don's posts.

I proceeded to stick a wad of stuck stamps and it worked for probably half of the pile. Damaged the gum on the rest (as I used my 908s to try and separate them) so I just used them for postage to get rid of them.

Suggest putting them in an oversized glassine just to keep the frost away...

I have frozen stamps 'apart'. I have tried multiple ways of doing it. Cold. Really cold. INCREDIBLY cold (liquid nitrogen, actually). It seems to work about 1 out of 10 times, and I cannot determine what the differentiating factor is - I suspect it has more to do with how the stamps were stuck together than the 'freezing apart' method used. Even with that 1 'success' in 10, it tends to promote thinning. Even IF you get them apart successfully, the gum is disturbed (and has offset) and the face of the lower stamp shows where the offset has come from. The only thing that seems to be constant is that it works better on stamps that are (VERY) barely stuck.

I have tried this enough to have convinced myself that it is simply not worth it.

Soak them. It is hard to tell about many of your pairs, but some do appear to be well centered. Soak them and don't risk damage.

This is not the answer you want. But whenever I've encountered stuck together stamps I've tried just about every solution anyone has thought of, but ended up soaking them apart.