How To Stop Mint Stamps From Curling Up?

Just bought a huge box of mixed mint & used stamps. Quite a few of the mint ones have curled up like they are ready to hibernate!

What do you folks do to stop / reverse this? Soaking the gum off would probably help but then they won't be mint any longer! Arrghhh...

Jim

To prevent this, go back in time and store them in an environment without such high humidity.

To cure it, if it's not too bad, you might be able to flatten them in a Stamp Press. One suggestion I have read but never tried, lay them on a towel in high humidity such as in the bathroom during a hot shower, and then press them flat in a book between 2 sheets of blotter paper. I would be concerned about the gum sticking to the blotter paper so maybe a layer of saran wrap on the gum side. Still some risk of disturbed gum I imagine, but maybe still better than a stamp all curled up like a cigarette tube. Definitely experiment with some cheap stamps before you try this. Curious to hear if others have any experience with this.

German stamps from the 1920s like to curl into a tight roll, I could be wrong, but it is my impression for those it is not enough humidity rather than too much.
Pick a cheap one and try huffing on it with your breath (high humidity( and see if it curls less or more.

Move to the UK! I don't have a problem with curling stamps, I can always uncurl them long enough to put it in a mount and have never found any that curl with enough force to open the mount. Also never had a problem with mould.I have had mint stamps stick very occasionally.

Ha - I got these stamps from a lady in the UK. Where I live is a high desert. So, maybe that's the case!! :-)

Use a drying book rather than blotter paper or saran wrap.

Humidity does this to stamps. Put them into an album or a stock book which will help keep them flatter. Do not store them loose.

And keep them in a fairly dehumidified location, never in the basement (or out by the pool or that waterfall you have in your back yard). I use a group of small cheap (Chinese) dehumidifiers to keep my stamp room reasonably dry. That helps. When one (Chinese) dehumidifier stops working which is inevitable, I just buy another one. It's cheaper than having a large one fail and being out all that money. And a few small ones work just fine.

Also don't live in Florida which can be hell on stamps. Or the American Southeast in general.

Hi all, I just wanted to mention not all basements are equal....I have what is called a complete "finished" basement where I live (not a dank and dark cellar) - the house is described as a modern Victorian and the basement style apartment is part of the 'footprint' of the house..

...like DrewM mentioned dehumidifiers are a must, so I keep two dehumidifiers down in my basement running all the time along with a high tech sump pump as backup. I always check for any kind of water issues daily but thankfully it has been dry as a bone. Surprisingly the basement is actually cooler and there is less humidity and less natural sunlight so I can safely store my stamps there with no problems.

I keep all my stamps and albums inside metal storage cabinets that I bought at ULINE