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| Collectors are often faced with the need to remove stamps from old letters and envelopes. Lack of proper techniques in this delicate operation often lead to the stamps, often quite valuable ones, being destroyed. On other occasions, when remounting stamps from one album to another, stamps are damaged by their being pulled from their old hinges carelessly, resulting in making a thin spot or even tearing them. Also what often happens is collectors, and generally dealers, leave the remains of several hinges on the backs, adding new hinges, which when mounted in books will buckle the stamps and in time ruin them. Frequently, we will see a real good collection in which most of the stamps look bad. A close look will reveal that most of the stamps are crumpled, when they should lay flat in the book, all because the collector had not removed the remains of old hinges. Stamp dealers, usually because of lack of time, do not soak the old hinges from all the stamps in their stocks. For the collector, however, it pays to take the trouble and very carefully select good hinges which may be easily peeled before mounting them permanently in his collection. This will greatly increase the value of the stamps in case the collector intends to sell them. Stamps that are printed on chalky paper should never be immersed in water but carefully floated off the envelopes. This is because, the chalk surface on the face of the paper, on which the stamps are printed, dissolves more or less in water. Naturally the print will come off with the chalk. In the 19th Century there are not many stamps, which will not stand immersion as chalky paper and aniline colours are not so frequently used. Also, hot water should not be used unless one is familiar with its use. Though some 19th Century stamps will stand hard usage without apparent damage, the pigment holding the pulp will be partially destroyed and the sheen on the surface will be removed. There are also many stamps in the 19th Century on which there is very thick gum. When the stamps are immersed in water it will not soak off the paper except when immersed for a long time in hot water, and then they will curl up. Scraping to get the gum off will very likely badly thin the stamp. On these stamps gum arabic has been used. Nowadays dextrin is generally in use and this dissolves easily in cold water. When stamps are soaked in large quantities, plenty of water should be used. This will dissolve the gum quickly and leave none on the back of the stamps and when they are dry, the stamps will not curl. To dry the stamps, preferably a clean towel or old newspapers could be used for cheap stamps, while for rare stamps clean blotters are better. When the stamps are almost dry, they should be pressed between the leaves of a book for several hours. Then they will lay flat. Before being immersed in water the stamps should be separated by colours, especially the different reds, blues and lilac purple and yellows. They should be soaked separately to prevent discoloration of others if they have to be left for any length of time in the water. There should be no hurry to take them out. Instead, the water should be given a chance to dissolve all the gum, and, as stated before, plenty of water should be used. If the water is noticed to be dirty, it should be replaced with clean water at once. Old stamps would have collected dust and dirt, which will come off in the soaking, making them look nice and fresh. Ordinary soaking of old stamps, which have gum arabic on the back and on which the heavy gum has penetrated into the paper, will not dissolve it. In this case, hot water with some white vinegar added is recommended. This will cut the gum. Only a small quantity of vinegar is required, say about one teaspoon of vinegar to a cup of water. After the stamps have been in the vinegar water for some time, the gum will either entirely dissolve or congeal into a jellied substance, which can then be easily removed with a dull silver knife or a bone or wooden envelope opener. Just light scraping is required to scrape the mucilage off. The knife should be wiped clean with a cloth before being used on the next stamp. After this treatment if there is any sticky gum left, the stamp should be soaked again in clean vinegar water until it is entirely gone. Then the stamp should again be soaked in cold water to restore the stiffness to the paper. Stamps, which need this treatment, are as follows: Austria 1850 No. 1 to No. 109 Offices in Crete No. 1 to No. 14 Offices in Turkish Empire No. 1 to No. 45 Lombardy Venice No. 1 to No. 51 and early newspaper stamps Bosnia No. 1 to No. 29 Bremen No. 1 to No. 15 Brunswick No. 1 to No. 19 Denmark No. 1 to No. 101 Dutch Indies No. 1 and No. 2 Hanover No. 1 to No. 24 Hawaii No. 1 to No. 4 and the numerals on perlure paper Hungary No. 1 to No. 46 and early newspaper stamps Japan No. 1 to No. 84 Montenegro No. 1 to No. 24 Oldenburg No. 1 to No. 15 Panama No. 8 to No. 14 and on these stamps with the surcharge the gum Varies. If it curls, gum arabic has been used Salvador No. 13 to No. 17 Sardinia No. 1 to No. 102 Servia No. 1 to No. 28 Turkey No. 1 to No. 7 and No. 1401 to No. 1404 Two Sicilies No. 1 to No. 28. There are others not mentioned here but easily recognised, as the gum will not come off by simply soaking in cold water. contd... |
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