Removing Stamps From Paper and Drying Stamps...Part II of III

Once you have sorted your stamps, soak them in small batches of about 10 stamps, but take careful notice and watch for ink color running. You will find that the paper backing that is red, such as can be found in greeting cards, will run the fastest. It is rare that the actual stamp ink will run, but sometimes the cancellation ink will run if it is from a rubber stamp.

It is wise to soak these particular types of stamps individually so that you can insure that no color bleeding occurs and that no other stamps are affected. If the colored paper color is running, remove the stamp immediately and change the water so that the color does not transfer onto your stamp. If a stamp has a rubber stamp cancellation mark, it should not be submerged in water. Instead, it should float on the water, face up.

Soaking time for stamps will vary greatly. Some stamps can take as little as one minute to dislodge, while others can take as long as 2 hours before they are ready to separate. It all depends on the type of adhesive that is used. Beginners should not use tongs initially as it is easy to damage the delicate stamps. Instead you should use your fingers to dislodge the stamps from their paper.

Check back on Monday for the conclusion to this series.

Removing Stamps From Paper and Drying Stamps Part I of III

Removing Stamps From Paper and Drying Stamps… Part I of III

For those who are new to collecting stamps, you might wonder how you can remove the stamps from the paper envelope. It is often a tricky endeavor, but with patience and practice, you will be able to accomplish this task.

Firstly, always resist the urge to try to take a stamp off paper by pulling at it, even if it looks like it will come off easily. Stamps should be trimmed first. Be careful not to cut the perforation off of the stamps as this will reduce its value.

Once you have trimmed the stamps, you can begin the process of removing them from their paper backing. You should soak the stamps in clean water that is about the temperature of your body. Many people have made the mistake of soaking the stamps in warm or hot water. Even though it is faster, doing so could easily damage the cancellation ink or the delicate stamp itself. This may also cause the ink in the paper backing to run. Be sure to use a good amount of water. Your goal in soaking the stamps is not only to dislodge them from the paper; but also to remove any residual adhesive from the stamp. You may need to change the water often so that there is not as much glue floating around.

Just as you sort your personal laundry, do the same with stamp sorting. Put like colors together. You should group colored paper backing stamps together as well as stamps that have the rubber stamp ink together.

Check back on Friday for Part II of this series.

The ABC’s of Displaying Your Stamps: Paper, Plastic, or Glassine

Until the 1960’s glassine was one of the mainstays of stamp collection display materials. It, however, is not acid-free and has very small amounts of sulfuric acid in it that can damage your stamps. These days there are specialty acid-free papers that can be bought that will not hurt them. Japanese rice paper can also be used, but this can be expensive.

Collectors, for the most part only put stamps on one side of a page. This is because it provides the best protection, though it does mean you need more pages and binders to keep your stamp collection in. The reason for putting stamps on one page only is because you get more tearing and scratching of the surface of a stamp when you have stamps facing each other, as opposed to just touching a blank sheet of paper.

To display individual stamps, because of cost, people will sometimes use plastic sleeves as an alternative to glassine, but with time and humidity, these can stick together and sometimes will stick to your stamp, so plastic is not a very good choice. Other materials like Mylar are good, but they are expensive and so not many people use them.

The best of all mediums for preserving your stamps is glass or some special types of plastic, but as we note above, this is too expensive and takes up too much room for people with more than just a few really precious stamps that they want to preserve.

Like any work of art, you must keep your stamps out of direct sunlight where UV will fade them. The same can be said of some types of strong house lighting.

The ABC’s of Displaying Your Stamps: Hinges and Mounts

If you are a serious or novice stamp collector, looking at the details of a stamp, both front and back, is a lot of fun. Handling stamps repeatedly, however, can damage them, so you have to be careful how you store and display your stamps to you can look at them over and over without harming them.

Although people have been collecting stamps ever since the first ones were minted, there is still a debate on the best way to secure your stamps so you can look at them. Traditionally something called a “hinge” has been used. These are small folded pieces of gummed paper. One of the flanges of the hinge is generally wetted and then stuck to a piece of paper and the other is stuck to the stamp. This holds the stamp in place, but still allows you to look at both sides of the stamp by flipping the stamp over on the hinge.

Hinge marks on stamps are not necessarily a bad thing, and sometimes they can add to the value of a stamp, but other times they can detract from its value. Most old stamps that have come from old collections have hinge marks on them. In the last few decades, collectors have moved away from hinges and now many are using mounts instead.

Mounts were initially used in the 1930’s. These are pockets that have a gummed back that you stick on a piece of paper and have a clear or semi-clear sleeve into which you can slip your stamp. Like hinges, mounts also need to be used with care because depending on the materials and how they are used, they can also produce marks or other damage.