I am clearing out/up some old acquisitions, including a good kilo and a bit of kiloware I picked up at auction several months ago. In this lot was an enormous amount of French definitives, including more 1990 Mariannes than I would have hoped to see. Y'know the ones:
Knowing from previous experience (and reading) that these are difficult, I decided to experiment to see what (if anything) could separate these little beauties from paper. My conclusion is that these are indeed impossible to 'float'.
Which comes my two questions (yes, two!):
a) Is there any method known to humankind to get these (1990 auto-adhesive Mariannes) off paper (clipping them close just offends my aesthetic sensibilities), and;
b) what other issues have you found to be 'impossible' to remove from their papery captors?
I know this is related to some other threads, but I'm hoping the specificity of these questions saves me from the opprobrium of the collective.
Here's the kit I use for GB self adhesive Machins :
Obviously you need to source the chemical product; another is 'Sticky Stuff Remover'. You'll need a small airtight container, a paint brush and a flexible spatula thingy. Then you'll need a bit of patience.
Not always 100% success (depends on the paper on which the stamp is affixed) but more than 90%.
Darryl,
I have been soaking stamps a lot the last few months (US for the most part) and the closest I have gotten to any success with self-adhesives was by multiple soakings and then rubbing off the adhesive gently with fingers. I have given up on that for the most part, as it sometimes fails and damages the stamp, and it is time consuming. Now I clip the envelope about 1/4 inch around the stamp and call it a lovely and purposeful framing.
I am sure you will get some good answers from the experts here, and I very much look forward to seeing them, as this has been a concern of mine as well.
Cut the stamp off the mailpiece, but leave a little bit of paper for perf protection. Then put it in your album. Works just fine. No chemicals, no fuss, no mess, no damaged stamps.
Some time ago I posted a message indicating the way I am able to separate self-adhesives from GB and US from paper. Basically, I use iso-octane (a component of gas, but gasoline will also work)
i) For US: inmerge the stamp for 1/2 to 1 minute in the solvent, then peel off the stamp from the paper pulling the stamp gently from one corner. The stamp comes off easily, but remains with a sticky back, You can neutralize it using talc.
ii) For GB, especially Security Machins. Use a small painting brush, or something similar to wet the back of the paper holding the stamps. Then proceed as above. (DOn´t inmerge the stamp in the solvent, as a thin layer of the stamp comes off. These stamps seem to be composed of two layers of paper: a thin one with the image, and a second one with the adhesive)
I think that for the French stamps the first procedure should work fine.
DON´T SMOKE WHEN DOING THIS PROCEDURE. THE SOLVENTS ARE INFLAMMABLE!
Your Marianne is one of the most difficult to soak succesfully. I have about a 1% success. Use VERY hot water and repeated attempts. 99% of the time you leave a layer of paper on the piece. The perf on two sides ( coil version ? ) soaks OK.
"Your Marianne is one of the most difficult to soak succesfully. I have about a 1% success. Use VERY hot water and repeated attempts. 99% of the time you leave a layer of paper on the piece. The perf on two sides ( coil version ? ) soaks OK."
Malcolm:
This is more or less what I concluded. Interestingly, when I use anything that has a petrochemical base, it almost seems as if the stamp polymerizes or plasticizes. I've also used a variety limonene-based products (Pure Citrus now seems to be practically unavailable in Canada), but seem to have less success than the hot water approach. Fortunately, I had a very large number of stamps to martyr for the cause.
For the vast majority, I've followed Eric's and Michael's approach and broke out the Fiskars. These will (hopefully) find themselves new homes elsewhere.
Darryl.
BTW any takers on the second question. Are there other stamp issues which are 'impossible' to deal with?
Irish Christmas (discount rate)stamps,GB security slit Machins and 2nd &1st class Christmas stamps are also very difficult. Modern Portugal definitives are tricky and Spain ATM "stamps" are definitely impossible. The Italian self adhesive standard rate stamps are also a concern.
I haven't got many very modern stamps ( say last 10 years ) so there may be many more.
Has anyone tried to soak one of the new 'classic stamps' USA issue?
Supposedly, they were to be made using a water soluble layer under the self adhesive layer similar to many of the earlier SAG issues. We talked about this in another thread a few months ago. Now that time has passed and the stamps are out there being used, any news about their soakability?
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy.. 26 Jul 2016 02:19:10am
re: 'Impossible' stamps to soak?
" ... Has anyone tried to soak one of the new 'classic stamps' USA issue? ..."
Just before the weekend I soaked one of the "Classic" Lincolns for about three minutes in rubbing alcohol and the stamp practally jumped off the paper.
Last month I received a lot of some twenty or thirty post 2010 security Machins and all came o0ff nicely but two using the same inexpensive chemical. But don't go longer or you will have a new shade variety to explain.
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".... You may think you understood what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you think you heard is not what I thought I meant. .... "
"Irish Christmas (discount rate)stamps,GB security slit Machins and 2nd &1st class Christmas stamps are also very difficult."
Some years back I had close enough 100% success using Lighter Fuel (Petroleum) to separate Irish Christmas & Definitive Self Adhesives. Talc took care of the excess adhesive. GB Christmas issues were also a success. A well ventilated work area is recommended and Miguel's caveat (re smoking) is not to be ignored
Ireland'a recent "Soar" issues are a different matter. Over 40% of these turned completely black using the same method.
Not sure why I bothered really, Irish stamps after the 1959 Guinness issue hold little or no appeal to me
I use "SHELLITE" to remove S/A stamps from paper they come off very easily after immersing in the fluid for about 10 seconds.As the adehive is still on the stamp this is ideal for uncancelled stamps.
I then dip them back in the liquid and use a small scraper to remove the glue ,it does not work all the time but 90% even works on those GB security machins.
PS Keep it air tight as it does evaporate.
Brian
I have read that "white spirit" as sold in the UK is very good too ( although I have not tried it myself. It is normally used for cleaning paint brushes. Note NOT turpentine substitute.
I have mentioned as used in the UK. The same chemical may go under a different name elsewhere, and this is often a problem on international boards.
Just recently removed a number of USA self-adhesive issues from paper using "Goo Gone", a solvent that I got at Wal-Mart. It consists of a mix of citrus oils (terpenes) and refined oils.
I put the stamps face-down in a glass tray, painted the solvent onto the paper on the backs of the stamps using a small artist's brush, put the sealing cover on the glass tray and let the stamps set for about 15 minutes. The stamps could then be easily peeled from the paper.
I set the stamps face down on a paper towel to keep the residual glue away from any surface and let them "dry" for about two days (this blend is not nearly as volatile as many of the solvents mentioned earlier in this thread). The backs of the stamps were then dusted with talc powder to make them totally non-sticky.
This is the first time I have used talc to destickify (my word) the residual glue on the backs of the stamps and it seems to work great. Just curious to see if there will be any glue migration over time that may cause of the backs of the stamps to become sticky again with time. I tried totally removing the glue once by soaking some self-adhesives in this solvent and then scraping the residual glue off the back, but the back never became totally non-sticky and some of the glue appeared to migrate to the front of the stamps, with patches of talc then sticking to areas on the front of the stamp when applied.
There are still warnings on the spray bottle to keep away from heat, sparks or flame, but this material should not be as flammable as the more volatile solvents. And by using the painting method with a brush, one small bottle of this solvent should easily remove many thousands of stamps. In other words, one bottle may last a lifetime.
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