I know there has been discussion of soakable USA stamps and the scott catalog has them listed with the red circle around the black S. I just received a $1 stamp on an envelope, it is 4953 from 2015 and my scott catalog only cover thru 2014. Does anyone know if this stamp is soakable? I don't want to ruin this stamp by trying this is the only one I have.
Thanks
Hi Carabop, you could try some "UN-DO"or "Stamp lift". Maybe try it on a different self adhesive first to get the run of things.
How's your Penny red collection coming along?
I have 2 Penny Red's now. I just got the 2nd one last week so really haven't even had a chance to examine it up close. I should scan it and show it off. Yes I was going to try something on the cheap self adhesives. Thanks
I Use Pure Citrus air freshener to remove the stamps. Spray the back of the paper the stamp is on. Then running the tongs under the stamp. Then i scrape the glue off with my perf gauge. Hope this will help. I have not found any stamps this dose not work on yet.
I just trim the paper within about a 1/32" of an inch of the perfs and call it good. To me, most aren't worth the trouble of trying to remove, at least not at this stage in their lives.
"2. Affix stamp to the thin transparent foil you get on dealers' stockcards."
The problem with the YouTuber's method comes when you (or your heirs) decide to remove the stamp from the plastic.
We started with permeable(paper)-gum-stamp, and applied the limonene (active ingredient in Pure Citrus) to the paper.
The limonene worked on the paper/gum interface, not the gum/stamp interface. Why care?
Once you've got impermeable(plastic)-gum-stamp, you must apply the limonene (or its antecedent) through the stamp.
Now the limonene is working on the stamp/gum interface, and this is less likely to offer a happy ending.
Why? The limonene (and its accompanying substances) will make the stamp mechanically weaker than the plastic, raising the ugly question of who you are pulling off of whom.
Someday, folks are likely to look at PSA stamps that were moved from paper to plastic with about the same regard that we show to stamps that were glued or taped into an album.
The underlying problem is that the limonene only loosens, but does not dissolve the adhesive.
The YouTuber suggests covering the remaining PSA; others scrape gently, apply talc, etc.
I'm a trim-to-fit guy, myself, but YMMV.
PS: If you are setting aside PSA stamps for eventual donation, leave the oft-requested one centimeter / half-inch paper margin, which will make it easier for anyone who wants to dismount that stamp.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
"I just trim the paper within about a 1/32" of an inch of the perfs and call it good. To me, most aren't worth the trouble of trying to remove, at least not at this stage in their lives.
Talc on stamps? Are you kidding me? Do you want your beautiful Queen on the machins to get a tumor?
Don't you know about the huge law suit and settlement of millions of dollars against Johnson&Johnson
and their talcum powder causing Ovarian cancer?
Keep that stuff away from me, I don't want any cancers, especially not my ovaries!!!!
What are Ovaries?
Removing self-sticks from envelopes, is just like nailing Jell-O to the ceiling....it's easy if you have the right
kind of nails.
Where do you keep your stamps? ... Never mind, I don't want to know.
If you are hinky about talc, consider baking soda.
Should your album pages ever leach a bit of acid, it will react with the baking soda, molecule-by-molecule, to form one molecule each of the respective sodium salt, and carbon dioxide, and water ... which is a pretty good trade.
Baking soda is also unscented (vs talc) and inorganic (vs cornstarch) (less likely to be a convenient food source for an inconvenient species).
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
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"I collect stamps today precisely the way I collected stamps when I was ten years old."
This is even easier....remove the sticky stuff....just need the right kind of nails....
If you try to scan those powder coated stamps what do you think will happen in your Vario
pages when all that static attracts all that powder???? HUH
Once upon a time I had a 7-pocket Vario page. Then when I attempted to insert some cheap
stamps into the pocket, some tiny flakes of stamp gum flaked off and became lodged into the
pocket. It was impossible to remove the goop that was now in the pocket. Now I have a
6-pocket Vario page with a bald spot!
So I destroyed the stamps so they could not pollute any more stuff, and removed the dam-
aged pocket in a very non-gentle manner. Moral here don't put anything on your stamps ex-
cept glassine hinges, plastic mounts, or mounting in Vario pages.
By the way, in case any of you think you can defeat or remove that static on the Vario pages,
don't bother, I already tried that. It doesn't work. Why doesn't it work?
Gee I'm so glad you asked that. the plastic ribbon cable that goes back and forth with the
scanner head moves just under the clear plastic of the scanner bed. That is the origin of most
of the static, that and sliding stamps in and out of the sheet pockets. If you don't believe me,
place some dust on the scanner bed and run a couple of scans and watch the dust do a little
dance on there.