Separating/Drying Mint Stamps

Hi all,

I have a massive amount of unused stamps that are either stuck to their glassine envelope, or to each other. I've been using a sweatbox to separate them, but I've yet to find a satisfactory method of drying them once separated. They tend to stick to whatever I'm drying them on. Any advice?

Thanks!

There are specific drying books to handle the problem. They have flexible plastic on one side and blotter paper on the other side. Once dry flexing the plastic page pops most all stamps free.

Yep! Hi Jane,
the Rod222 drying sandwich.
1 sheet of A4 copy paper
1 sheet of Freezer bag (pkts for about $3)
Place damp stamps face up on the freezer bag (takes up to 40 stamps)
1 sheet of A4 copy paper

Place the sandwich in a suitable book size
wait 2 days, out they come flat as a Halibut, and slide off the freezer bag.

Total cost ...pennies.

This method has no limit, one can do 1000's at a time
But only recommend you soak / steam what you intend to mount
The rest can be a waste of time.

Warning: No good for self adhesives.

Oh, rod222, she wants to maintain the gum on these stamps, no soak it all the way off. Suggesting she "Place damp stamps face up on the freezer bag" with the gum side still with gum being pressed on A4 paper will not, I repeat not, stop the stamps from sticking to the A4 paper.

Parcelpost guy.
Please re-read my advice. I have been doing this for 20 years.

A4 sheet (at bottom)
Next : freezer bag Place stamps FACE UP on freezer bag
A4 sheet (on top)

That is the sandwich
NEVER had a stamp not release and slip off.

However.
If Jane wishes to practice, by all means try with one or two stamps
then by all means.
All advice here comes with due care caveats.

PS: Be aware, that no matter what route is taken, there are going to be
issues that are unavoidable

With my route, the gum drying against the freezer bag, may show the typical glaze, found when mucilage (gum) changes flexibility in mounts under
humidity.

Same with a "drying book"
Stamps dried without these processes will buckle and bend.

One chooses the best route of personal choice.

Ah, Joys of dyslexia and the fact I always put the stamps on the blotter side gum-up first. The picture in my mind was with the design side up against the clear plastic to see the design. Yes the drying books I mention and your gum-side to the plastic are the same process and generally the same outcome.

Now that you and I are on the same page, it would take a good premium over face for me to bother taking my time separating the "brick" of postage the OP has. Dump them all in a bowl, allow to soak apart, gum be damned, dry, then use (glue stick) or sell as ungummed discount postage. They also can be sold as discount postage in the form of the brick.

Yes, that is my preferred route as well.
In my early years, spent valuable time, trying to preserve stamps in their best possible station, but it was folly.
All my sweated stamps, Malay definitives, with huge globules of yellowing gum
they never really survived in a state, that encouraged repeating.

Yes, save the mint full gum in mounts, including the "lightly hinged" (a quarter perhaps, remaining of the lip of the hinge) the rest soaked clear of mucilage, and just bite the bullet.

As I advertise for "the ripped and torn" and "abused" stamps in my swaps,
I often get stuck blocks, it may feel like scraping your nails across a blackboard, but I just dunk, separate, and joy in the clean, flat, examples,
that slide off the freezer bag.

Thanks for the advice! I'll give the freezer bag sandwich method a try. :)