Aussie Stamps: April 2009

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Soaking Self-adhesive Australian Stamps Off Paper

How To Soak Self-adhesive Postage Stamps

How to soak self-adhesive postage stamps is a question I often hear beginning collectors ask. A self-adhesive postage stamp is a stamp with a pressure sensitive adhesive. They do not require moistening in order to adhere to paper. Self adhesive postage stamps usually have a backing paper that can be soaked and removed.

I have noticed stamp collectors on some stamp collecting groups asking for information on how to soak self adhesive postage stamps from paper. I have noticed a few other collectors suggesting that to soak self adhesive postage stamps is very difficult, if not impossible. I do note that there are certain self-adhesive stamps from around the world that are impossible to soak, but that is not my experience with Australian stamps.

In response, I have written this article with instructions about how to soak and remove large amounts of self-adhesive postage stamps without damaging them. I have just spent the last 6 weeks removing many thousands of used self adhesive Australian stamps with my 18 year old son, with very satisfactory and almost flawless results. A very small amount of stamps do get damaged in the attempt to get them off, and these I discard instantly so as to move on to the next stamp.

1. Sort your stamps ready for soaking. Remember to separate any stamps that are on coloured paper as the dyes can transfer onto your stamps. Any amount up to about 30 grams at a time seems to work fairly well with this method.

2. Place your stamps face-up in a large container of clean room temperature water. (Water any warmer than room temperature appears to make the self-adhesive stamp paper softer and a bit more difficult to work with). Spread 1 layer and gently submerge them under water with your fingers to get them wet. Repeat until you have put all your chosen stamps in the water. Leave soaking for between 1/2 to 1 hour. Place two more containers next to the first. One filled with clean water to drop the removed stamps into, and another empty for the leftover scraps of paper.

3. The trick to getting self adhesive stamps off paper intact is to gently prise the paper slowly back from the corner of the stamp. You take the paper from the stamp and not the stamp from the paper. Be very careful not to bend the stamp's corner.

4. Pick up 1 stamp at a time and place face down on your extended index and middle finger on your other hand. Gently peel back a corner of the paper, keeping the stamp perfectly straight. If the paper starts to separate from the stamp, you can continue peeling the paper away from the stamp until it is removed and drop into the clean container of water. At the slightest resistance, drop the stamp back in the soak water for a bit longer.

5. You will usually find that stamps that are returned to the water can be processed quite easily after about another 15 minutes. Stamps with a bit of glue left on them can be finished by gently rolling the glue towards the outside edge of the perforations.

6. When all the stamps are removed, carefully place the stamps, one at a time, face-up onto a towel spread out on a table. You can gently pick up about a dozen at a time, and slide the individual stamps neatly into place. Leave to dry until no beads of water are left visible on any of the stamps.

7. Lay the stamps out in single layers between several pages of a large heavy book, taking care when closing very slowly not to damage stamp corners. Weigh your book down and leave to press for a couple of days, or weeks.

8. You should now have some very nice flat self adhesive stamps off paper ready to add to your collection.

Happy Stamping

kerryduck@harboursat.com.au

Australian Stamp Facts And Innovations

More than 1 billion Postage stamps are produced in Australia each year.
Australian Law states that Australia Post must provide a universal mail service that all Australians can access.
Australia Posts longest mail run visiting isolated communities and outback cattle stations, from Port Augusta to Birdsville, involves a 2600 kilometer, two day plane journey.
2.8 million Australia Post delivery points are in rural areas, the outback or on islands.
In 1990, Australia became the first country in the world to produce Self-adhesive (peel and stick) stamps for ongoing use on a mass scale, directly inspiring other countries to start using self-adhesives for standard postage.
No Commemorative stamps were issued in Australia between 1901 and 1927 because the UPU (Universal Postal System) banned commemorative stamps being used on international mail. The powers that be, concluded that the ban included the use of commemorative stamps for domestic use. The UPU lifted the ban in 1922. In 1927 the opening of the Parliament House in Canberra was commemorated with the first commemorative stamp issued by the Australian Commonwealth.
Australia produced the worlds first commemorative stamp in 1888, with a set labelled "One Hundred Years" In 1997, New South Wales and Victoria issued the world's first charity stamps. Charity stamps are sold at a higher price to benefit a charity.
In 1995, Australia produced it's first holographic stamp, Opals.
The worlds first personalized stamps, Stamps with people's own snapshots on adjoining labels, were introduced in Australia at the Melbourne international philatelic exhibition 2000.
During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Australia was the first country in the world to produce Instant stamps. Every Australian gold medalist had a stamp placed on sale within 48 hours after the medal was won.
In 1957, Australia was the first country in the world to issue Christmas stamps.
Since 1989, Australia Post has been putting the year into all stamp designs they issue. The year on the stamps are so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see them.
Australia's youngest stamp designer, Holly Alvarez from Perth, WA, was five years old when her 1983 Christmas design was chosen during a national competition amongst primary school children.
There are over one million stamp collectors living in Australia

Stamp Collecting Words and What They Mean

AAT: Australian Antarctic Territory
Accessories: Commodities used by stamp collectors to assist with stamp identification and handling.
Acid-free-paper: Paper with a pH greater than 7.0 containing no acidic additives.
Album: A book in which stamps and other philatelic material are mounted.
Appraisal: When a stamp collector seeks out the value of a collection, either for selling or insurance.
Approvals: Selected Philatelic material is sent to a collector, with prices, through the mail. The collector takes what they need and returns the remainder together with payment for items held back.
ATM: A term used by stamp collectors for Automatic teller machines that also dispense stamps.
Average: A standard of condition, not generally considered desirable.
Bisect: A stamp that has been cut in half so that each half can be used at half the face value of the original stamp. A person who collects bisects usually collects the original cover with the cancel covering the cut on the stamp.
Block: An unseperated group of stamps, of at least four, two wide and two high.
Booklet: A small cardboard booklet containing one or more panes of stamps.
Bulls-eye cancellation: A postmark where the city and date have been placed directly on the center of the stamp.
Cachet: A design imprinted on an envelope or postal card that describes the event for which the envelope was mailed. Cachets are commonly used on First Day Covers, covers celebrating a significant anniversary, first flights, stamp exhibitions, and so on.
Canceled to order: Stamps that are cancelled by a postal authority for the philatelic trade, without having been used for postal duty. They are not very highly regarded by collectors.
Cancellation: The ink impression applied to a stamp by a postal authority to render it unusable for re-use.
Centering: Refers to the location of the stamp's design relative to the surrounding margin.
Cinderella Stamp: Cinderella stamps are all stamps that are not government issued postage stamps or postal stationary items.
coils: Single denomination and design stamps that are produced in rolls of 100, 500 or more for use in vending machines.
Commemorative: A stamp that is issued to commemorate an event, an anniversary of an event, or honor a place or person. They usually have an interesting design, are produced in lesser quantities than definitives and are on sale for a limited time.
Cover: An intact envelope or postcard, aerogramme, etc. that has been through the mail with the appropriate postal markings and evidence of postal payment.
Definative: A regular stamp in general use over an extended period.
Face Value: The monetary value of a postage stamp that it will pre-pay as shown on the stamps design.
First-Day Cover: An envelope or postcard with a newly issued stamp affixed that has been cancelled with a First Day of Issue cancellation at a city designated by the postal administration.
To Be Continued

Aussie Stamps

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Soaking Self-adhesive Australian Stamps Off Paper

Blog Archive

Stamp Collecting Links

Australian Stamp Facts And Innovations

Stamp Collecting Words and What They Mean