United States Self-Adhesive Stamps - Pro's and Con's:

Well, they sure are easier to put onto an envelope and they do save us some time tearing them apart from each other from the sheet or coil they came from (not to mention saving us some saliva).

BUT, and it's a big "but" - some of the recent American self-adhesive stamps are almost impossible to soak off their paper. These stamps either just won't come off, no matter what you do, or once off paper, they dry with big "cracks" in their surfaces, or when they come off the paper a layer of the stamp comes off too (leaving either thins or an entirely "thinned" stamp).

These are not good things for stamp collectors that are interested in postally used postage stamps. We wish the USPS would smarten up and use some type of adhesive that allows stamps to more easily be removed from their paper.

Some of the "problem child" stamps that are so very difficult to soak off paper include stamps of the 37 cent Constellations set (Scott No. 3945-3948), the 37 cent Summer Olympic Games stamp (Scott No. 3863), the 41 cent Purple Heart (Scott No. 4164), the 41 cent James Stewart stamp, the beautiful 26 cent Panther coil stamp, stamps from the popular Star Wars set, some of the Forever Stamps (Scott No. 4127) and the nondenominated Flag coil stamps (Scott No. 4133). There are more difficult to soak self-adhesive stamps, these are just some of them.

The disturbing trend toward use of definitive stamps instead of commemorative stamps is continuing. Take a look at the mail you receive. How many "regular," definitive stamps were used as postage, and how many of the large commemorative stamps were used?

Is this because it's easier to keep a small booklet of self-adhesive definitives in your wallet or purse, ready to be put on a piece of mail when a stamp is needed? Possibly...

Is it because the sheets of large commemorative stamps are a bit less convenient because of their larger size, even though many commemoratives are now self-adhesive? Possibly ...

Is it because many post offices, like the one we use, "push" use of definitive stamps rather than commemoratives? Our post office only carries one or two different types of commemoratives at any one time and, if you go to the window to buy stamps, they will sell you definitives unless you make a specific point to ask for one of the one or two types of commemoratives they do carry. It almost makes you wonder why the USPS bothers to print commemorative stamps anymore.

We think the USPS needs to "smarten up" a bit and encourage the use of commemorative stamps a bit more than they currently do. People receiving mail using such stamps will be happy to see something different even if they're not stamp collectors. And stamp collecting will be helped a great deal. Stamp collectors would once again be able to easily obtain our beautiful used US commemorative stamps.