Stamps That Just Won't Soak
What's a stamp collector to do with a bunch of stamps that just won't soak off their paper? This sorry situation is becoming more and more common, and especially with recent issues of self-adhesive US stamps. These stamps just won't soak, no matter what a stamp collector tries...cool water, warm water, extra time in the soaking bin, a bit of dish soap liquid added to the water ... they won't come off no matter what. And the occasional one that does soak ends up a cracked, crinkled mess despite careful treatment.
An editorial in a recent issue of Scotts Stamp Monthly suggests that stamp collectors shouldn't even attempt to soak them, and instead collect these unsoakable stamps on cover. I don't know about you, but I don't want to collect stamps on cover, or even on piece. I want my stamps properly soaked off paper and placed neatly in their proper spaces on my stamp album pages. Obviously that's not possible to do with covers, but it's not possible with stamps on piece, either.
Stamp albums are designed to house mint stamps and soaked used stamps, not pieces that are much thicker and larger than their soaked equivalents. Collecting stamps on piece in stock books won't work either - because of their additional thickness any stock book (and stamp albums too) would quickly start bulging. No matter what you try, collecting these unsoakable stamps will create a strong risk of having a very messing, unaesthetic-looking stamp collection.
I just want to collect stamps. Not covers, not pieces. So I just may decide to not collect the unsoakable ones at all, which means I might as well cut off my US stamp collection at 2005 or so, and just focus on finding earlier stamps.
Does anyone out there have a better solution?
Showing posts with label self-stick stamps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-stick stamps. Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
Self-Stick Stamps (Self-Adhesive Stamps)
Until very recently, almost all stamps printed from every country throughout the world came with adhesive gum on the back. These traditional adhesive stamps are easy to lick or otherwise moisten, but the gum that's been used on stamps hasn't always been of the highest quality. Throughout the years gum has been made from various plant products such as cornstarch, gum Arabic, sweet potatoes and sugar, and sometimes stamps fell off letters.
The United States Post Office tried various experiments to improve the "stickiness" of the stamp gum used on United States stamps, inluding trying a special "summer gum" that was intended to resist high humidity and a special "winter gum" that was intended to resist cracking in cold, dry winter air.
The small South Pacific kingdom of Tonga came to the rescue. Although the source was unlikely, being such a small and undeveloped country, the solution was brilliant. Tonga printed the world's first self-adhesive stamps in the 1960s, including stamps that were appropriately shaped like bananas. These stamps were so unusual, both for their novel self-sticking ability and their die-cut shapes, that they became a big hit with stamp collectors around the globe. Since then, many countries have joined Tonga in printing self-adhesive stamps. Peel-and-stick stamps are now the most common type of US stamps.
Until very recently, almost all stamps printed from every country throughout the world came with adhesive gum on the back. These traditional adhesive stamps are easy to lick or otherwise moisten, but the gum that's been used on stamps hasn't always been of the highest quality. Throughout the years gum has been made from various plant products such as cornstarch, gum Arabic, sweet potatoes and sugar, and sometimes stamps fell off letters.
The United States Post Office tried various experiments to improve the "stickiness" of the stamp gum used on United States stamps, inluding trying a special "summer gum" that was intended to resist high humidity and a special "winter gum" that was intended to resist cracking in cold, dry winter air.
The small South Pacific kingdom of Tonga came to the rescue. Although the source was unlikely, being such a small and undeveloped country, the solution was brilliant. Tonga printed the world's first self-adhesive stamps in the 1960s, including stamps that were appropriately shaped like bananas. These stamps were so unusual, both for their novel self-sticking ability and their die-cut shapes, that they became a big hit with stamp collectors around the globe. Since then, many countries have joined Tonga in printing self-adhesive stamps. Peel-and-stick stamps are now the most common type of US stamps.
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