Rol
**Member**
Posts: 11
What I collect: Canadian , Commonwealth Stamps
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Post by Rol on Aug 18, 2020 3:03:03 GMT
I found some mint stamps with original gum stuck together with moisture . Anyone got any ideas on separating them without ruining them?
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khj
Member
Posts: 1,524
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Post by khj on Aug 18, 2020 5:15:21 GMT
Unfortunately, no matter what you do, the best you can hope to achieve is to retain severely disturbed gum. There are numerous methods -- "sweat"/humidity box, gentle steaming, using Stamp Lift fluid, freezer (the opposite extreme)...
You didn't ask, but to be honest, the stamps shown are basically face value stamps. Given the time and money spent to try to recover them as disturbed original gum unused stamps, it's probably more practical to use them up for postage and buy mint replacements at or near face value. JMHO
Unless of course, they have sentimental value. In which case, do what it takes to recover what you can.
Best wishes...
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Beryllium Guy
Moderator
Posts: 5,912
What I collect: Worldwide Stamps 1840-1930
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Post by Beryllium Guy on Aug 18, 2020 7:11:49 GMT
Thanks for your post, Rol . What you show is a common problem, I am afraid. I inherited my father's stamp collection, which was mostly unused stamps, and it was not always stored very well, and there were a fair number of stamps stuck to each other, as well as to the paper and glassine envelopes where they were kept. I considered each stamp individually, and based on catalogue value, I decided what to do. Some I just soaked and some I used the Stamp-Lift Fluid. I have never tried the sweat-box, although I am told that it can work. I have also tried the freezer, which worked in some cases, but not in others. Terri ( philatelia) has had good success with the freezer technique. If I recall correctly, she warns that you need to put the stamps directly into the freezer without any packaging for best results. I initially tried putting the stamps in a Ziploc bag into the freezer, which was ineffective. Overall, I agree with Kim ( khj ). These stamps are only worth struggling to try to save the gum if they have sentimental value to you, and of course, only you can determine if that is the case or not. If these do not have sentimental value, then I would go along with Kim's suggestion: soak them apart in water and use them for postage, and then buy some new unused copies, which should be readily available at reasonable prices. Best of luck with whatever you decide.
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khj
Member
Posts: 1,524
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Post by khj on Aug 18, 2020 7:44:24 GMT
For stamps I want to keep that have been stuck down or partially stuck (intentionally or not), these are the 2 options that I typically used in the past:
1) I only use Stamp Lift fluid for partially stuck down stamps for which I want to minimize disturbance to sections of gum that are not stuck down. The typical example for this would be removing booklet panes from booklets with tabs intact. While many times the booklet pane can be removed with tab intact through "careful tugging/pulling/yanking", there is the occasional tab that is completely glued down. For this type of example, I will locally use Stamp Lift fluid so that the booklet pane gum is unaffected. As a selvedge collector, it bothers me to no end that post offices use the tab to affix booklet panes into booklets. Sacrilege. But that's a rant for another thread.
2) For stamps that are completely stuck down or for which I have no interest in keeping any undisturbed gum parts, I prefer using the sweat box. It's my experience that the sweat box allows you to retain the most original gum with minimal reflow or glazing. The drawback is that you also get the most micro-pitting or texturing. But if you do it right, the texturing can be quite uniform and doesn't look that bad. Just remember, don't put the gum side down on the blotting paper unless you want to soak the blotting paper to get the stamp back off (don't ask me how I know this). There are ways to almost eliminate the texturing, but I don't want to get into that here. There's a fine line between recovering a stamp for sentimental reasons and altering a stamp for other reasons. Since the technique isn't that difficult to find, I'd rather not be the source.
I've never tried the freezer method, but I've read posts in the past from pretty reliable/experienced collectors that it worked quite well. One case involved bricks of stuck-together plate blocks. While they weren't able to separate all of them using the freezer method, they were able to separate the majority with enough remaining gum to reliably stick the stamps onto the envelope as postage. You will, however, have some stamps damaged during the prying process if they were stuck one on top of another (i.e., some gum make pull off some ink from the underlying stamp). I'm hesitant to try this because I know I'll forget about it and then accidentally grab one out of the freezer thinking it's one of those cheapie ice cream sandwich bars that I like.
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napo
**Member**
Could I write my introduction here?
Posts: 40
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Post by napo on Jan 7, 2021 5:34:02 GMT
Thanks for the responses. I have that problem, too, and I hate to lose the stamp
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