Stamps On Torn Corners Of Envelopes - What To Do?

Hello

Part of the collection I have inherited is bags full of stamps that have been used on envelopes that the previous collector have torn off the corner. I was wondering what to I do with them? Do I try and peel the stamp off the envelop?

I also have stamps on complete envelopes which I was planning to leave alone as it shows the address and other interesting details. Would that be the correct thing to do?

I have included some photos to show you what I mean. I don't think any of the stamps in the photos of of interest, as they seem common.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

J

J - Your intuition is spot on. Keep whole covers (envelopes) intact. The common stamps on corner clippings are usually soaked off depending upon what your plans are. They will need to be sorted by adhesive type since modern self-adhesive's will almost uniformly not soak off in water. No need to soak though if you want to sell the material as on-paper kiloware. Or they can be soaked and sold as off-paper kiloware. What are your thoughts and how much of this type of material is there?

If you're soaking to keep the stamps, just do one of each type - no point in soaking duplicates. Before soaking, make sure you don't have a decent copy that's already off-paper. Probably best to deal with this stuff last, after you've gone through the other material.

If you have very early Australia Kangaroos still on a fragment, don't soak those yet. The latest specialist catalog for Australia has some special markups for those. Post a picture if you have one of those before soaking. By early, I'm talking 1913-1920 or so.