I collect very few modern stamp issues, and of the ones I do collect, I keep them used on cover.
I do something similar in that I use (or relocate) the stamp around the one I want, then cut the backing paper to "frame" the stamp like this and buy slightly larger mounts to mount them with.
I do the same as Doug.
I was thinking of you, Michael, when I showed my "Owney" stamp!
LOL. I thought there may have been a connection with that.
What a small world we stamp collectors live in...this one was gifted to me for my personalized stamps group !
I'm not sure this is widely known in the collecting community, so I just wanted to mention that Scott considers the value of a mint self-adhesive stamp to be undisturbed on its original backing paper.
And for used self-adhesive stamps, the value is the same whether on-piece or off-.
I did something similar to Doug and Michael, but I cut the backing paper very close (under magnification) so they would fit in standard mounts. If the design went past the die cut, I would collect two examples. If there were multiple designs, I collected an intact block from a sheet or a complete booklet pane. I collected a complete pane of Hendrix since the stamps all faced different directions. I also collected imperf (no die cut) margin pairs. I collected booklet singles if there was only one design, but collected complete booklets if they were issued without die cuts. If the design flowed from one stamp to the next, I also included singles. If the design spilled past the die cuts, I included selvage to capture it.
That's what I did through 12-31-14. After that I just collect the Annual from USPS.
Lars
That's really nice presentation Lars!
Dave, that's very true. It can be a real bear to try to separate a stamp and have decent backing paper intact behind it. Sometimes the sheets are poorly perforated, and the backing paper tears so that it raggedly overextends, or else it tears behind the stamp. Those all get used for postage. For the stamps on sheets and booklets where the backing paper isn't perforated, it is easy to just use the stamps around the one desired for postage and then cut off the the extra backing paper to come up with a good, collectible stamp.
"For the stamps on sheets and booklets where the backing paper isn't perforated, it is easy to just use the stamps around the one desired for postage and then cut off the the extra backing paper to come up with a good, collectible stamp."
When I use up stamps for postage, I save the backing paper. I have a box full. I then lift the surrounding stamps I intend to use for postage later and put them on some of this extra backing paper for short term storage to get them out of the way so I can do my clean cuts around my keeper!
Hey John those are some clean classy pages but question: did you soak the gum off of mint stamps??
Ernie
Pure Citrus Orange.
I might be wrong but it is my understanding that Citrus Orange can get the self adhesive stamps off the paper but can not get the self adhesive off. I know some people use this and then put talcum powder on the back. That is a poor idea, I think. Over time the talc will enter the body of the stamp and discolor it. Just my 2 cents worth. ccndd Chris
1. Soak the back of the paper that the self adhesive stamp is attached to and peel off the stamp.
2. Dip the adhesive side of the stamp in the citrus orange.
3. Scrape the adhesive from the stamp using something like the edge of a credit card or...
4. Allow the stamp to dry (5 min or so)- does not need pressing.
5. Place in album.
A little more time than soaking stamps in water but it works - at least for me.
Tad
"... 3. Scrape the adhesive from the stamp using something like the edge of a credit card ..."
I have been collecting mine with the backing still on and cut wide once the adjacent stamps have been removed. I've even been cutting it straight on my cutting board.
I wonder if these mint stamps that have had the gum removed will be regarded in the same light as Mint No Gum older stamps are today?
Hi! I am thinking maybe if the Citrus Orange can get the self adhesive off as well that this a better method than mine. So to be clear: adding a little more Citrus Orange to the already removed from paper stamp allows for the remaining adhesive to be scraped off? If this is correct I would like to know the exact name of the product and where it can be reasonably obtained. Many thanks, Chris
Pure Citrus is the brand name of a particular air freshener.
I bought mine at Home Depot.
The active ingredient is limonene, which can be found in other products as well.
In the most general case, you are dealing with three layers: paper, PSA, stamp.
The accepted practice is to spray the paper side, so that you loosen the paper/PSA bond while minimizing the risk of damaging the stamp, or of leaving a chemical (food!) residue in the stamp.
That copy55555 gets a good result loosening the PSA/stamp bond is a tribute to his steady hand and fine motor skills.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
I haven't tried the pure citrus yet. I've been using the n-heptane in Bestine (found at Hobby Lobby), but it's flammable.
I use a cotton swab and soak it in Bestine, then apply it to the paper side and let it soak through to break the linkages in the glue polymers. It is "almost" instant, but you peel the stamp off the opposite side of the paper with steady, firm peeling pressure. I then turn the stamp faceside down on a glass plate, soak the adhesive side with liberal amounts of Bestine (again, applied by cotton swab), and then scrape off the adhesive with the edge of an old credit card. You have to push in one direction (away from you) with modest downward pressure for best results. Any back-and-forth motions risks damaging the stamp. Get the majority of adhesive off first, and then go back and lather, rinse, REPEAT. I can do up to about 10 stamps before I start getting adhesive gunk everywhere and I have to wash the glass plate. I can usually get 100% off, but in these stubborn issues where it still remains tacky, only then will I use an ever-so-small amount of talc to take the tackiness away. Literally just a small amount that gets caught in the ridges of your fingerprints will do.
Results are pretty good, and the tackiness hasn't come back over time, but the process is time consuming . Here are some examples:
http://noernbergstamps.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=removed&inc_subcat=0&sort=4a&page=5
{ U$D 64,000 }
If, back when you first began stamping, you had to go thru this rigmarole with every stamp, would you have ever continued stamping?
{/ U$D 64,000 }
Nope! It's a pain, that's to be sure. But for some reason, I do it anyway... Lots of things in life can't be explained, I reck'n.
I've sworn I'm not collecting modern US stamps, now I've changed my position that I will keep ONE stamp from each sheet I buy for postage. With my running the model car club and show, I do blow through a lot of postage, so I buy $100 or so at a time. Lately I've been asking the clerk to give me as many different stamps as possible.
Anyway, my question how is everyone keeping these? The above illustration is how I've been doing it. I have a paper cutter so I've been cutting perfectly straight and square lines. As you can see, I've used the stamps all around the one I've kept and then cut wide margins on the backing sheet. There seem to be two types of stamps, those with perforations that abut, and those that have a strip of perforations around them. Either way, the perforations are not really perforations, but just decoration the way we have fake wood on the sides of station wagons!
Take the center two stamps as illustrations of both types of perforations. I've selected a stamp in the center of the sheet to get these. I did save a block of four of the Jimmy Hendrix stamp since they varied the rotation of each stamp. I thought that was cool enough to save a block.
Then in the bottom row, I saved a corner. I have Janis with the USPS block and bar code, and Maya had a nice red border around the sheet.
So what are you folks doing?
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I collect very few modern stamp issues, and of the ones I do collect, I keep them used on cover.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I do something similar in that I use (or relocate) the stamp around the one I want, then cut the backing paper to "frame" the stamp like this and buy slightly larger mounts to mount them with.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I do the same as Doug.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I was thinking of you, Michael, when I showed my "Owney" stamp!
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
LOL. I thought there may have been a connection with that.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
What a small world we stamp collectors live in...this one was gifted to me for my personalized stamps group !
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I'm not sure this is widely known in the collecting community, so I just wanted to mention that Scott considers the value of a mint self-adhesive stamp to be undisturbed on its original backing paper.
And for used self-adhesive stamps, the value is the same whether on-piece or off-.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I did something similar to Doug and Michael, but I cut the backing paper very close (under magnification) so they would fit in standard mounts. If the design went past the die cut, I would collect two examples. If there were multiple designs, I collected an intact block from a sheet or a complete booklet pane. I collected a complete pane of Hendrix since the stamps all faced different directions. I also collected imperf (no die cut) margin pairs. I collected booklet singles if there was only one design, but collected complete booklets if they were issued without die cuts. If the design flowed from one stamp to the next, I also included singles. If the design spilled past the die cuts, I included selvage to capture it.
That's what I did through 12-31-14. After that I just collect the Annual from USPS.
Lars
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
That's really nice presentation Lars!
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Dave, that's very true. It can be a real bear to try to separate a stamp and have decent backing paper intact behind it. Sometimes the sheets are poorly perforated, and the backing paper tears so that it raggedly overextends, or else it tears behind the stamp. Those all get used for postage. For the stamps on sheets and booklets where the backing paper isn't perforated, it is easy to just use the stamps around the one desired for postage and then cut off the the extra backing paper to come up with a good, collectible stamp.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
"For the stamps on sheets and booklets where the backing paper isn't perforated, it is easy to just use the stamps around the one desired for postage and then cut off the the extra backing paper to come up with a good, collectible stamp."
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
When I use up stamps for postage, I save the backing paper. I have a box full. I then lift the surrounding stamps I intend to use for postage later and put them on some of this extra backing paper for short term storage to get them out of the way so I can do my clean cuts around my keeper!
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Hey John those are some clean classy pages but question: did you soak the gum off of mint stamps??
Ernie
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Pure Citrus Orange.
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I might be wrong but it is my understanding that Citrus Orange can get the self adhesive stamps off the paper but can not get the self adhesive off. I know some people use this and then put talcum powder on the back. That is a poor idea, I think. Over time the talc will enter the body of the stamp and discolor it. Just my 2 cents worth. ccndd Chris
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
1. Soak the back of the paper that the self adhesive stamp is attached to and peel off the stamp.
2. Dip the adhesive side of the stamp in the citrus orange.
3. Scrape the adhesive from the stamp using something like the edge of a credit card or...
4. Allow the stamp to dry (5 min or so)- does not need pressing.
5. Place in album.
A little more time than soaking stamps in water but it works - at least for me.
Tad
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
"... 3. Scrape the adhesive from the stamp using something like the edge of a credit card ..."
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I have been collecting mine with the backing still on and cut wide once the adjacent stamps have been removed. I've even been cutting it straight on my cutting board.
I wonder if these mint stamps that have had the gum removed will be regarded in the same light as Mint No Gum older stamps are today?
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Hi! I am thinking maybe if the Citrus Orange can get the self adhesive off as well that this a better method than mine. So to be clear: adding a little more Citrus Orange to the already removed from paper stamp allows for the remaining adhesive to be scraped off? If this is correct I would like to know the exact name of the product and where it can be reasonably obtained. Many thanks, Chris
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Pure Citrus is the brand name of a particular air freshener.
I bought mine at Home Depot.
The active ingredient is limonene, which can be found in other products as well.
In the most general case, you are dealing with three layers: paper, PSA, stamp.
The accepted practice is to spray the paper side, so that you loosen the paper/PSA bond while minimizing the risk of damaging the stamp, or of leaving a chemical (food!) residue in the stamp.
That copy55555 gets a good result loosening the PSA/stamp bond is a tribute to his steady hand and fine motor skills.
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
I haven't tried the pure citrus yet. I've been using the n-heptane in Bestine (found at Hobby Lobby), but it's flammable.
I use a cotton swab and soak it in Bestine, then apply it to the paper side and let it soak through to break the linkages in the glue polymers. It is "almost" instant, but you peel the stamp off the opposite side of the paper with steady, firm peeling pressure. I then turn the stamp faceside down on a glass plate, soak the adhesive side with liberal amounts of Bestine (again, applied by cotton swab), and then scrape off the adhesive with the edge of an old credit card. You have to push in one direction (away from you) with modest downward pressure for best results. Any back-and-forth motions risks damaging the stamp. Get the majority of adhesive off first, and then go back and lather, rinse, REPEAT. I can do up to about 10 stamps before I start getting adhesive gunk everywhere and I have to wash the glass plate. I can usually get 100% off, but in these stubborn issues where it still remains tacky, only then will I use an ever-so-small amount of talc to take the tackiness away. Literally just a small amount that gets caught in the ridges of your fingerprints will do.
Results are pretty good, and the tackiness hasn't come back over time, but the process is time consuming . Here are some examples:
http://noernbergstamps.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=removed&inc_subcat=0&sort=4a&page=5
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
{ U$D 64,000 }
If, back when you first began stamping, you had to go thru this rigmarole with every stamp, would you have ever continued stamping?
{/ U$D 64,000 }
re: How Do We Collect Modern Stamps?
Nope! It's a pain, that's to be sure. But for some reason, I do it anyway... Lots of things in life can't be explained, I reck'n.