Seven Easy Steps to Soak Kiloware Stamps Effectively and Cheaply


Almost every stamp collector will soak stamps at some point during their stamp collecting "career."  Some collectors soak stamps only once or twice a year, while others do it much more frequently, several times each month and sometimes even more.  Stamps are usually soaked in order to get them off their backing paper (the remains of the covers or postcards the stamps were used to mail), but occasionally it's done to remove stubborn old stamp hinges.  For some collectors the soaking process is just something that has to be done, but for other stamp collectors soaking itself is a pleasure - calm, peaceful, relaxing and full of promise.

Believe it or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to soak kiloware and other stamps.  This means there are certain steps that should be followed by any stamp collector who is soaking stamps.

1.  Select the stamps to soak.

Take a careful look at all the stamps you're considering for soaking.  You won't want to soak anything that's better to save on piece, including special cancellations, hologram stamps and scarce or rare stamps.  Set those items aside and collect them on piece.

You should soak stamps that are on brightly colored paper separately from other stamps.  This is especially true of stamps on red, purple, orange or green paper (like many Christmas card envelopes).    Because these envelope colors tend to bleed into the soaking water, their colors can easily stain stamps that are being soaked.  Set these stamps aside for now - you'll want to soak them separately and very carefully.  Stamps with colored cancellations (especially purple or red) should be treated the same way.

Find any stamps that you recognize as being "unsoakable" stamps (we've discussed this type of stamp a couple of times recently) and set them aside.  The more you soak, the more stamps of this type will become immediately recognizable.  You know the type of stamp we're talking about - they're modern self-adhesive stamps (not all of them, but some) and when you try to soak them it just doesn't work.  Either they won't come off the paper or they turn into a mess when you try to soak them.  Either way, there's no point in soaking them, and if you, they might be destroyed.  So set them aside.  There's not much you can do with them other than saving them on piece.  Many recent Great Britain and US self-adhesive stamps fall into this unsoakable category, but certain stamps from other countries do too.

You should limit the number of stamps to be soaked in any one batch.  Even if you have 20 kg of stamps to soak, there's no need to fill your bathtub with stamps.  In fact, soaking in a huge batch is a big stamp no-no, because if anything bad happens (like fugitive ink from a colored envelope you failed to take out) it could very well happen to all the stamps in that huge batch.  So from the pile you have left (the stamps that will be soaked), pull out a random 50 or 60 or so, a good number for a soaking batch.  


2.  Find a suitable plastic tray or bowl for soaking.

It should be large enough to hold the water and the stamps that will be soaked and provide plenty of room for the water to circulate and the stamps to move about.  We find that a bowl is better because it's deeper and there's less chance of the water overflowing.  It doesn't need to be a good bowl, in fact, find an old one and use it for this purpose.  That way you won't mind when the bowl gets a bit "grummy" from the dissolved stamp adhesive that's left behind in the water.

3.  Soak the stamps.

Put your 50-60 stamps to be soaked into the bottom of the bowl, and add enough lukewarm to warm water to make them freely float.  Be careful about the water temperature, but experiment a bit.  The hotter the water, the faster the adhesive will release, letting the stamps come off their paper.  But the hotter the water, the greater the risk of fugitive ink discoloring other stamps.  With lukewarm water the stamp gum usually begins to dissolve within about 15 or 20 minutes, although some gum types will require much longer baths.

4.  Wait until the stamp gum dissolves in the water.  

While you're waiting, give the stamps a gentle stir with your hand every few minutes.  This stirring allows the water to get to stamps that may be stuck together and other nooks and crannies in the stamp mix.  When the gum dissolves, stamps will start to float off the paper, and others will smoothly slide off the paper with just a little pull with your tongs.  Always use stamp tongs, and always use them very carefully during the soaking process because wet stamps are very fragile and easily torn.  As with the bowl, you may want to use an old set of tongs for soaking stamps, as they will become covered with dissolved gum and will not be suitable for any other purpose without very careful cleaning.

5.  Carefully remove the successfully-soaked stamps from the bowl.

Use your stamp tongs to carefully and one by one pick up all the stamps that are floating off paper and put them into another bowl full of cool, clean water.  This removes traces of gum residue on the stamps.  Some of the stamps won't float free and will need a little assistance.  With your tongs pick up these stamps (also one by one) and gently slide or peel them off the backing paper by first lifting a corner.  These stamps should also be bathed in a bowl of cool, clean water.  Any stamps that don't peel off easily should be put back into the water for some additional soaking time.  If you have some stubborn self-adhesive stamps in the soaking water, you can try adding a few drops of liquid dish soap and make the water a little warmer.  Sometimes that helps release the self-adhesive gum from the stamps.

6.  Dry the stamps.

Several methods can be used to dry stamps that have been soaked.  You can buy "drying books" from commercial stamp suppliers and they work well, but they cost a bit of money.  We always try to keep our costs down and have found a method that works just as well and is almost free, costing only the price of three white paper towels and a piece of waxed paper.  

The first step in drying soaked stamps entails individually picking up stamps (with your tongs) from the cool water and placing them face down on a plain absorbent white paper towel so that none touch each other.  Avoid using newspaper or other paper with print or colors because this can bleed through.  Also avoid using glossy or "slick" paper as this won't absorb the water that's in the wet stamps.  After your stamps are placed face down on the paper towel, place another paper towel on top.  After a few minutes the bottom paper towel will be wet or damp and will stop absorbing water, so carefully move the stamps onto another paper towel to finish the drying process.  The stamps may curl a little as they're drying, but not to worry, you'll be flattening them in the next step.

7.  Flatten the stamps.

When the stamps are dry, individually pick them up with your tongs and put them onto a piece of cardboard that's been covered by a piece of waxed paper and placed on a hard surface.  Once again, make sure that the stamps don't touch each other.  Then find a very heavy book (or even two) such as a telephone book and put the book on top of the stamps.  Then sit back and let everything stay that way for a fair number of hours - at least 12 hours but preferably 24.  Your stamps should then be flat, ready to be put into your stamp albums or otherwise stored.

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?

Snap, Crackle and Pop - Soaking Self-Adhesive Stamps


Self-adhesive stamps (also called peel-and-stick stamps or pressure-sensitive stamps) are a modern type of stamp that has become amazingly popular. They're so popular, and so pervasive in the mailstream, that it's hard to imagine self-adhesive stamps ever going away. They're quick and convenient to use on mail because they don't need to be licked or otherwise moistened - just peel and stick!

Unfortunately, self-adhesive stamps have made life difficult if you're a member of the stamp collecting world. No matter what we do to get them to soak off, some self-adhesive stamps seem like they're stuck on their envelope or box forever. But because they're so popular, we're "stuck" with them, even though they make stamp collecting much more difficult.

There are several additional collecting challenges that are presented by self-adhesive stamps, including how to properly mount the stamps, how to properly store the stamps and how to effectively soak them off their paper.

If you store unused self-adhesive stamps on their backing paper (as they are bought from the post office) mounting them in a stamp album becomes a bit awkward because the stamp blocks provided on the album pages won't be the right size: backing paper left around the edges of the stamps, even if closely trimmed, makes the stamps bigger than the albums provide for. And even worse, if you leave unused self-adhesive stamps on their backing paper, you run the risk of the stamp adhesive migrating onto the edges of the front of the stamp.

But figuring out the answers to those problems is easy compared to figuring out how to effectively soak used self-adhesive stamps free from the paper they were mailed on.

Some used self-adhesive stamps aren't too much of a problem. They may require soaking for a much longer period, but eventually they'll detach and float free of their paper. Just be careful soaking those relatively easy stamps when they're on brightly colored paper - the long soaking times that are usually needed will increase the chances that the vividly colored inks from the paper will bleed onto the stamps.

You should soak used self-adhesive stamps as soon as you get them. The longer they're left on paper, the harder it will be to get them to detach and float off their paper. The adhesive seems to get stronger, not weaker, over time.

But the real problem children are what I call the "snap, crackle and pop" self-adhesive stamps, and it seems like the United States is producing more and more of them each year. You know the kind - no matter how you soak them (varying the water temperature, adding a bit of soap, longer soaking times, etc.) these things just will not come free. Or if they do, they're a wrinkly, crinkly, crackly mess that won't ever be flat when they're dry no matter how they're pressed. The recent 42 cent Bette Davis stamp from the US Legends of Hollywood stamp series is just one of many examples of this type of stamp. It's a shame, because some of these stamps are beautiful and many have a widespread appeal.

The snap, crackle and pop stamps - the ones that just will not properly detach from the paper they were mailed on - are making it quite difficult for used stamp collectors. The only solution I've found (for now, anyway) is to trim the excess paper away and not even try to soak the stamps, because soaking will essentially destroy them. I just collect them on-paper.

But I think some people may find a pot of gold at the end of the used stamp collecting rainbow. Lucky (or talented) stamp collectors who do manage to successfully soak these stamps without mangling them will probably be few in number. And that means that successfully soaked stamps will be few in number as well. Guess what that means for their future value? They'll be worth far
more than comparable-subject stamps that are much more easily soaked. So I guess these things aren't all bad for the stamp collecting hobby. It just seems that way right now.

Soaking Self-Adhesive Stamps - Get Used To It

Self-adhesive stamps (sometimes called peel-and-stick stamps or pressure-sensitive stamps) have become so popular with the non-

stamp collecting public that it's hard to imagine them ever going away. They don't need to be licked or otherwise moistened

before being applied to an envelope, and once there, some of them can seem like they're stuck there forever.

Self-adhesive stamps were first used in the 1960s but initially they were more of a novelty than anything. Sierra Leone, Tonga,

and Bhutan - all countries that are not known for the huge amount of mail sent by their residents - were the first producers of

peel-and-stick stamps. The United States issued an experimental self-adhesive Christmas stamp (Scott # 1550) a few years later,

but they were not well accepted by the public. This particular stamp has two large detriments for collectors: used copies are

extremely hard to soak off paper, and the adhesive has discolored the light-colored background of the majority of mint stamps.

The next foray into the self-adhesive stamp world by the US met with far more success. Scott # 2431 (the 29 cent Eagle and Shield

stamp) was issued in 1989. That stamp really got the ball rolling for peel-and-stick stamps, and now we are "stuck" with them

even though they definitely do present extra challenges for philatelists. These additional challenges include how to store them (should I keep them on the backing paper, making them a bit more awkward to mount in my stamp album, and also risk migration of the adhesive onto the edges of the stamp?) and how to best soak them.



Self-adhesive stamps should probably be soaked with other self-adhesive stamps, not in a mixture that includes water-activated stamps. Water-activated stamps almost alwats float free of the paper they're on long before self-adhesive stamps.

Be careful when soaking peel-and-stick stamps that are adhered to colored paper: the long soaking times that are usually required increase the chances that vividly colored inks from the paper will bleed onto the stamp.

Soak self-adhesive stamps as soon as you acquire them. The longer these stamps are left on paper, the more "stuck" they will become and it will be even harder to get them to detach and float off the paper.

You may succeed in soaking self-adhesive stamps off their paper within 45 or so minutes, or it may take 15 t0 20 hours. Or, they may never release. Some issues are particularly stubborn.

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.

Are Water-Activated ("Lick and Stick") stamps dying a slow death? Part 2 of 2 Parts.

Let's revisit the issue that there are many more self-adhesive stamps now being used than water-activated, lick-and-stick stamps.

One problem that this issue raises is the fact that many more self-adhesive stamps, and many fewer water-canactivated stamps, will be seen in postally used stamp accumulations and mixtures. This imbalance will cause postally used lick and stick stamps to become much harder to find. But is this truly a problem or not?

Will the imbalance result in increased future values for those postally used water-activated stamps that can be found? Will they have a higher catalogue value than "equivalent" self-adhesive stamps that are much more readily available? No one knows as yet, but we predict that a higher catalogue value for water-activated stamps is a distinct possibility.

For example, we can easily envision a stamp that has two varieties - one self-adhesive and one water-activated - where the future catalogue value of the self-adhesive is 20 cents (or whatever the minimum value of popular stamp catalogues is at the time) while the future value of the much less common water-activated variety is 2 or 3 or even more times as much.

Are Water-Activated ("Lick and Stick") stamps dying a slow death? Part 1 of 2 Parts.

Since the advent of self-adhesive stamps, usage of water-activated stamps has severely declined. In the old days, self-adhesives didn't exist and people were accustomed to licking stamps in order to use them to post mail. Water-activated stamps were the only game in town, and no one minding using them.

Now, however, self-adhesive stamps are in the picture. It seems like there are far more self-adhesives being produced by countries than water-activated stamps. No doubt, this is because of customer feedback indicating their preferences to the USPS and other countries' postal authorities. Even with stamps that are available in both self-adhesive and water-activated varieties, postally used copies of the lick and stick version are drastically under-represented in stamp accumulations.

Self adhesive stamps truly are much easier and much quicker to put on covers, but some of them can be almost impossible to soak of their paper without causing extreme damage. Collectors of postally used stamps are accordingly having a very difficult time in trying to find some of the newer issue self-adhesive stamps that are off-paper but still in collectible condition.
Those stamps will have to be collected still on paper.

We mourn the apparent slow death of lick and stick stamps.