Dawn And Self-Adhesive Stamps

On a whim, I soaked some US stamps in a very mild tub of Dawn dishwashing soap. The results - perfect. The stamps were in the tub for several hours. I slid the stamps off their backing and then soaked them for another hour. They came out without any trace of adhesive. Has anyone else tried this, and what have been the results? Or has anyone tried a different soap? Note that I have tried but one batch and that was two nights ago.

Dawn ingredients: This full list taken from the Dawn dish soap web site.
water
sodium lauryl sulfate
sodium laureth sulfate
c10-16 alkyldime-thylamine oxide
denatured alcohol
ppg-26
sodium chloride
sodium hydroxide
pei-14-24/ppg-16 copolymer
phenoxyethanol
fragrances
methylisothiazo-linone
colorants, blue 1, yellow 5, red 33
c9-11 pareth-8
styrene/acrylates copolymer
tetrasodium glutamate diacetate
chloroxylenol
glycerin
sodium cumene sulfonate
propylene glycol
terpineol

colorants, blue 1, yellow 5, red 33

The dyes are a concern as well as any optical brighteners.

Further testing: About 50% success. For some reason it worls fine on the smaller definatives, but nnot larger stamps.

Which specific stamps are we talking about? Many of the earlier US self adhesives do just fine in warm water. Others do not. The Scott Specialized catalog has a special red "S" icon on the issues they recommend "Do Not Soak".

As the chemical information posted in this thread suggests, I'd be a bit careful. You are putting those chemicals -- some maybe good, some maybe not so good -- into your stamps. They might end up gradually bleaching the images off your stamps. They might end up delaminating the paper of the stamps. They might weaken the paper and cause the stamps to gradually disintegrate over time. If I told you that you could get the adhesive off your stamps by using gasoline, you most likely wouldn't do that (and no, I don't think you can get adhesive off stamps this way) for obvious reasons. Dawn dish soap is much milder, of course, but it's not as mild as pure water. I'll drink pure water, and so will you, but neither of us is going to drink Dawn dish soap. So be careful what you soak your stamps in.

I have given up on my idea. But, it was worth a try.