Once in a while you may come across an interesting and colorful stamp on your mail that you perhaps want to keep. You should never try to peel away the stamp in its current state as it you may damage it. So here is an easy and correct way of removing a stamp from an envelope.
The first thing to do is to a cut around the corner of the envelope where the stamp so you have a little bit of space around the stamp margin. Then take that piece and put it in a small bowl or a glass of cold water. Push it in all the way through until it is all entirely covered in water. Let that soak through for a couple of hours until the stamp loosens itself from the envelope backing.
Then take out the wet stamp and place it on one half of a thick paper towel. Fold the other half of the towel over the stamp. Afterwards place a thick book on top of the stamp so that it will flatten it and prevent curling. Let it stand for a day. Afterwards, take the dried stamp out of the towel.
There is a chance you probably will just collect unused, or mint, stamps, since they are worth more than used, but this is a good skill to have regardless.
Albums: Preserving Your Stamps
The best way to house, preserve and display your stamps is an album, which can be bought at stamp stores. These albums usually have pages with spaces where you can put your stamps.
To affix unused stamps in an album, collectors use mounts, which are like little plastic square sleeves that have a clear see-through window on the front, and a gummed black backing. If you are using mounts, what you should do is slightly moisten the top half of the gummed backing and then affix it to the album. After that is securely attached, insert the stamp inside the mount with the stamp artwork facing you. Mounts vary in size from small to very large depending on the size of the stamp.
For mounting used stamps, hinges are preferable. They are smaller than regular mounts and are made of glassine paper-like stock. Here, you moisten the back part of the hinge to the album, and then moisten the tiny upper half where the backing of the used stamp will be.
If you want to avoid using any type of mounts, which can be somewhat of a time consuming process, there are pages called stock sheets that have rows of pocket-like plastic sleeves already on them. All you have to do then is put the stamps inside the pockets. These stock sheets, whose pocket sizes vary depending on the stamp size, are sold usually in a pack of five and can fit into any three-ring binder.
Basic Tools For the Stamp Collector
As a stamp collector you’re going to need just a few tools to handle you stamps. The most important one may be stamp tongs, which are small metallic tweezers used to pick up and move your stamps. It’s not an absolute but a preferable method of handling your stamps than touching them with your fingers because of the possibility of dirt or the natural oils from your skin.
A magnifying glass is useful to examine your stamp up close. There are several types available from your usual standard one, to special ones that can magnify to the greatest detail.
You may notice you when you purchase stamps at a post office or from a dealer that the vendor will put them in a glassine envelope. They are the usual norm in protecting stamps from air or grease. They are good to have when you are moving your stamps around or storing them temporarily.
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