What happened to the color of my stamp??

From time to time I hear from collectors who have come across a stamp that has turned color from yellow or orange, to a disgusting brown or chestnut.   What happened??

The collectors sometimes first think that their stamp album pages have plasticized PVC in them and that has caused the discoloration.  The philatelic industry has almost universally mistakenly referred to this process as "oxidation" for many years.  Thankfully in the case of SAFE Stamp Albums, we know that there is no plasticized PVC in any of the pages.

If your stamp is in archival stamp album pages, then the actual cause is environmental contaminants in the air, in which the correct term is actually "Sulphurization."  Below, I have paraphrased some comments from a recent editorial in the American Phlatelist.

Sulphurization is an unintended and undesirable chemical process that alters the natural color of stamps printed with ink containing lead.  Philatelists often assume that prolonged exposure to oxygen is the cause of this browning.  It is actually the traces of sulfur in the air that combined with the metallic component of pigments to alter the surface of the ink coating and our perception of its color.  A sulphurized stamp represents that progressive damage over a period of time.

Many also ask whether this sulphurization can be reversed?   And the answer is yes, by oxidizing the stamp.  For used stamps, a gentle bath in an over-the-counter hydrogen peroxide (a 3% solution), followed by a rinse in a clear water will usually restore the color in less than a minute.  Peroxide in its pure form is a very strong oxidizer.  Obviously mint cannot be immersed in hydrogen peroxide without destroying the gum, but with practice, they can be fumed.  However, NEVER ATTEMPT this yourself without first practicing on some common examples.

Some philatelists argue strongly against the use of peroxide on sulphurized stamps, calling it a form of alteration such as re-gumming.  However, I personally think it is more like restoration or conservation in bringing the stamp back to its former beauty.  Either way the choice is yours.  But remember to keep your stamps as safe as possible in SAFE stamp albums!

So many different kinds of perforations...

A collector talked to me about perforation gauges the other day on the phone, after complaining about today's self-adhesive stamps.  And it got us talking about the history of perforations.  So I dug deep through the internet to provide our readers a little about the history of perforations.
The world’s first postage stamps, issued by Great Britain in 1840, were without means of self-separation. They are called imperforate or, abbreviated, “imperf.” Such stamps had to be cut apart with scissors or some other means. Hence it is unusual to find “imperfs” with nice margins on all four sides.  Shortly after the first stamps were issued, the idea of separating each stamp from each by means of rows of small holes between the rows of stamps was introduced.

The story was told that a local had purchased some of England’s first stamps and, under the influence of a pint or two, sat on the curb where he produced a pin and began to poke pin holes between his stamps so that he could tear them apart. The idea worked so well that he took his stamps back to the Post Office and pointed out his great discovery. Later, it is related, the British Government provided this gentleman with a substantial sum of money for his invention. 

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PERFORATIONS

There is, of course, a very apparent difference between a stamp without perforations – “imperf.” – and one with perforations – “perf.” – and one can readily understand why early collectors made such an important point of that difference. However, in this day of collecting it is somewhat difficult to understand why so much emphasis is placed on the different gauges of perforation.

The fact remains that for United States stamps, which have been perforated by machines producing various gauges of perforations, there is often an enormous difference in value running from a few cents to as much as several hundred dollars for what, to all intents and purposes, is the identical stamp except for the gauge of the perforation. The same situation applies to most foreign issues but until the advent of “The New World-Wide Postage Stamp Catalog” few collectors in the United States were aware of this fact. This catalog lists and gives values for practically all perforation varieties of all stamps of the world.

Likewise our printed hingeless stamp albums – provide spaces in which to place each stamp – with perforation varieties for the stamps of the United States and other countries. The matter is important, however, and especially so as one becomes advanced in his or her collecting interests.

COMB PERFORATIONS
Now let us take into consideration the various kinds of perforations and the methods by which they are applied to stamps. The original perforating machine, one that is still in common use for the stamps of some countries, is the “comb” perforator. As the name implies, this is an instrument shaped like a comb. The pins that do the perforating are arranged in a long row to fit the width of the sheet of stamps and the extensions of shorter rows of prongs are arranged so as to fall between each stamp, like this:

Stamps in sheets are stacked in quantity and the comb is punched through the top row. Then the comb is moved to the next row and so on. The comb does not always line up exactly with the preceding row so that this style of perforation can often be identified in any vertical pair of stamps.  However, it has never come to my attention that these variations in the placement of the comb have received any important consideration among collectors. Usually the punches, or prongs, that make the perforations are round in shape. But there are also some that are oblong, or lozenge, in shape or perhaps others. Collectors refer to these odd shapes as “hyphen hole” perfs., or “Lozenge” perfs., and “square” perfs.

Photo by Bureau of Engraving & Printing

Modern perforating machines, as used in the production of US stamps, are sprocket wheel punches which punch continuous rows of holes between the stamps. When the stamps are produced on rotary presses in a continuous strip, the sprockets are small wheels that make a continuous row of perforations in one direction.

Then, a little further along on the machine, the sprockets are on a long shaft running the complete width of the sheet to produce the cross row of perforations at each turn of the wheel. Naturally this is a complicated device requiring careful coordination with the printed stamps so that the rows of holes will fall at exactly the correct place between the stamps. Nowadays this coordination is accomplished electrically by what collectors call the “electric eye” shown above.

This is what gave the idea of the electronic perforation gauge to the people at SAFE.  And hence the Perfotronic was born.  The Perfotronic uses an electric eye of sorts to measure the perforation in 1/4, 1/10 or 1/100 increments in a fraction of a second.  We produced a short video of the Perfotronic so you can see how it works for yourself.

How can I get a self adhesive stamp off an envelope?...

Every now and again I get a phone call asking if I know if there is any good way to remove a self-adhesive stamps from envelopes.  Do you have any special stamp accessories that can help?   Ironically we don't ... but your hardware store does!

While the self-adhesive stamps have been a boon for the post office, and users of stamps, gummed stamps were always so much simpler for collectors.  Just soak them in water and they fell off the paper.  But if you want to place a self adhesive stamp in a stamp album or a stamp stockbook, how can you get it off the envelope?!

After countless home remedies that people have tried, can you believe the answer is WD-40?!  Yet another problem solved by WD-40 and it only takes 20 seconds.  This is how it works - but don't come complaining if it didn't work for you :-)

1. With envelope in hand, cut the paper around the stamp leaving enough exposed to hold on to the edge of the stamp with stamp tongs. 

2. Hold your stamp with the tongs, with the back of the stamp (blank paper facing you) so you can see the center of the stamp.  (Use a light if necessary to assist)

3. Spray some WD-40 with spray nozzle on the center of the back of the stamp and within a few seconds the paper will look translucent.  For thicker postcards allow the WD-40 a few more seconds to penetrate the thicker paper stock.

4. The stamp should now peel off very easily with your stamp tongs.  If it doesn't wait just a little longer.  Then try again.  It doesn't fall off like the old days, it must be peeled with the stamp tongs.

5. Place your stamp face down into your stamp drying book or stamp drying press.  Take a brush and sprinkle and brush a little baby powder on the adhesive.  And let it dry!

Perforations on stamps - a big difference in value!

People sometimes wonder why stamps have these perforations, or teeth, and do they really matter in the value of the stamps...the short answer is YES!  Allow me to give you a brief history of perforations that I paraphrased from various sources.  And why you need to have a perforation gauge in your arsenal of stamp tools and stamp accessories.

Until about 1850 all stamps were issued imperforate, and had to be cut from the sheet with scissors or a knife. This was time-consuming and error-prone (as mangled stamps of the era attest). Since then, a perforation machine, based on Henry Archer's original design worked on a "stroke" principle. The arrangement of the pins enabled the top and sides of each stamp across the row to be perforated in a single operation, and this became known as "comb" perforation.

The standard for describing perforation is the number of holes (or the "teeth" or "perfs" of an individual stamp) in a 2-centimeter span. The finest gauge ever used is 18 on stamps of the Malay States in the early 1950s, and the coarsest is 2, seen on the 1891 stamps of Bhopal. Modern stamp perforations tend to range from 11 to 14.

Stamps that are perforated on one pair of opposite sides and imperforate on the other have most often been produced in coils instead of sheets, but they can sometimes come from booklet panes. Booklet panes can be associated with any combination of one, two or three imperforate sides. Sheet edges can produce any one imperforate side or two adjacent imperforate sides when the stamp comes from the corner of the sheet.

Variations include syncopated perforations which are uneven, either skipping a hole or by making some holes larger. In the 1990s, Great Britain began adding large elliptical holes to the perforations on each side, as an anti-counterfeiting measure.

For the stamp collector, perforations matter, not only as a way to distinguish different stamps (a perf 10 may be rarer and more valuable than a perf 11 of the same design), but also as part of the condition of stamps. Short or "nibbed" perfs are undesirable and reduce value, as are bent or creased perfs. Although the collector could count the number of holes using a ruler, the usual practice is to use a simple perforation gauge shown above, which has pre-printed patterns of holes in a selection of common perforations, requiring one merely to line up the stamp's perforations with the closest match.

Then, after many hours of stamp collectors eyes going blurry due to trying to align these little holes, the R&D team at SAFE designed the electronic Perfotronic.  The PERFOtronic automatically measures by rounding up or down to the next 1/4 perforation as shown in stamp catalogs. The processor of the unit is even able to calculate around missing perforations or perforation errors.  

So anyway you look at it, yes perforations are important to stamp collectors, so make sure you always have a perforation gauge with you at all times.  You never know - you might run into a great opportunity to buy a stamp that has a lot higher value than you think.

Just inherited a stamp collection...now what?

My brothers and I just inherited my Grandfather's stamp collection.  It has both used and not used (mint) stamps.  We have been told that it does have some very valuable stamps in it, but quite frankly we don't know which they are.  Can you help us?

The first thing I would suggest you do is organize the collection by country. In order to gather any information about a stamp, you would first need to know what country it is from.  In order to do this, the most cost effective method would be utilizing a stamp stockbook.  These are bound stockbooks (just like a book at the library) that are available in different sizes and configurations. 

You could also purchase stamp stock pages to place inside of a ringbinder as well which many stamp collectors do.  There are also hingeless stamp albums available for your mint stamps which are the optimum way to collect. But in reality, this will cost you more and since you are just trying to get organized, stamp tongs (which are like tweezers) specifically designed for stamps. this will get expensive. When you are placing a stamp in any type of system, you should use stamp tongs.

Lastly, once you are organized you could then either bring the collection to a local stamp dealer, or alternatively try to first value the stamps themselves using Scott Catalogs which are the industry standard.  These books, though quite expensive, do provide current market values of stamps.  These are all organized by country which is why I suggested this method earlier. 

I wish you all the best with your new collection.  Hope you and your family enjoy all the work and effort your grandfather put in building your collection!

Watermarks on stamps - cool!

People ask me all the time about watermarks and watermark detectors - some collectors don't even know that they exist on stamps.  Most modern stamps do not have watermarks on them, most likely due to the cost of manufacture.  A watermark is typically impressed on the base paper by a "DANDY" roller, which contains the watermark design, during the early stages of paper manufacturing. 

Since the same stamp could catalog at 10 cents or $1,000 all depending on the WATERMARK, it becomes imperative that you know i your stamp has the watermark or not.  Stamps sometimes come with the watermark imprinted inverted or sideways or inverted on the same stamp design.  And collectors value them differently.

Now on to how to find out if your stamp has a watermark.  The oldest and least expensive method is using watermark fluid and a watermark tray.  You simply place the stamp face down in the tray, and place a small amount of watermark fluid on the back of the stamp.  Hopefully the watermark can be seen.  The fluid then evaporates, leaving your stamp unharmed, just needing to dry.  A time consuming process to see many stamps.  Not to mention, the difficult in analyzing the design of the watermark.

This is why SAFE invented the Signoscope.  The world's first optic, electric watermark detector.  It operates only on glass, pressure and light.  No fluid is required and your stamps are never endangered.  You simply place the stamp in the tray, tighten the pressure, turn on the light and you see the watermark (or not).

These watermark detectors have the added benefit of being able to detect even slight variations in the thickness of the paper, making it very effective at spotting repairs and forgeries.  Even as simple as whether the stamp has been hinged in the past.  

To this day after 25 years of using the Signoscopes, I am amazed by their simplicity and convenience.   They have paid for themselves over and over!

           

What are my stamps worth...

I get calls weekly (as do many other dealers), asking how can they get a value of their stamp collection.  This question is usually posed by someone who is new to stamp collecting many times by virtue of an inheritance of a grandparent or someone else they were close to.  They could have received these in single approval cards, but usually they are found in a stamp stockbook, or printed stamp album.

Stamp collecting is not exactly a new trend sweeping through the world; In fact, philately (or the study of stamps), and stamp collecting have been of interest to many enthusiasts for over centuries. In fact, the American Philatelic Society (APS), which is the biggest congregation of philatelists and stamp enthusiasts in the world has over 40,000 members, was established in the year 1886.

However, the standards by which the marketability and collectable worth of stamps have more or less remained constant. Stamps, generally, are determined as worthy of being collected on the basis of the quality of the stamp and rarity.

Under the qualification of quality is firstly the physical wholeness of the stamp. In effect, it must not be creased, folded, and must still have complete perforated sides. In addition, considerations on its centeredness have the capacity to jack the prices up or drive them down. Centeredness means that the design is placed in equal distances from the perforated edges on all sides. An alternate definition for centeredness is that the perforated area under the design is much larger in measure than the one at the top.   These perforations are measured and cataloged using a perforation gauge.

Color also plays a huge factor in the quality of the stamp. Consistent exposure to the sun and wrong storage methods can cause the color of the design to fade. Moreover, many amateur stamp collectors make the mistake of soaking stamps to remove them from the paper without taking into consideration the ink used to print the stamp and the ink of the cancellation on a used stamp. Stamps issued before the 1940s were printed using fugitive ink, which runs in water. Other times, a used stamp will have a cancellation that runs on water. Soaking the stamp will cause the cancellation’s ink to run into the design, completely compromising the quality of the stamp.  When drying the stamps, many people use a stamp drying press or stamp drying book.

Aside from that, the condition of the gum or adhesive film at the back of the stamp is also taken into consideration. A stamp with its gum more or less still intact is much better than one that has been severely damaged by licking and sticking.

A mint or unused stamp has equal chances of being as expensive as a used stamp, and this is best determined by the availability of the stamp. A stamp with lesser propensity of being used on letters would be more expensive if it were acquired as a used stamp; a stamp, on the other hand, that was used in letters in huge volumes would obviously be much more expensive in its mint condition.

The exception to this general rule of thumb is stamps that were already acquired at a steep price. These stamps, acquired expensive even when they are used, will likely to have prices hiked if the great demand to acquire it continues to increase.

However, there may be great difficulty in trying to assess objectively the possible market value or worth of a stamp. Expert philatelists who are connoisseurs in stamp valuations are most likely able to objectively assess the worth of the stamp.

These expert philatelists are not very hard to find. They are usually some of the stamp enthusiasts who’ve had much experience in trading, selling, and collecting stamps. Their services are made most accessible to members of philatelic clubs of which they are part. Some associations that afford their members the services of expert philatelists include the American Philatelic Society (APS) and the American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA).

On the other hand, other options are of greater accessibility especially to amateur stamp collectors. Across the country, most libraries have more or less an extensive collection of stamp catalogues that help guide stamp enthusiasts in finding out the various stamps issued under a particular theme or subject classification. Moreover, stamp catalogues contain a wealth of information as regards a certain price level for which these stamps are sold in the market.

Usually, stamp prices are a little bit higher than how they would be sold by individual sellers. Nonetheless, these catalogues are useful guides when it comes to at least being aware of what price range the stamp would fall under.  The most commonplace stamp catalogues available in the libraries include the US-based Scott, Britain's Stanley Gibbons, and Germany's Michel Catalog.