I use tap water.
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Much of what is sold to us as progress, I feel is a step backwards. An earlier method of producing stamps was intaglio printing. You can feel it with your fingertip when you stroke the surface. What a wonderful feeling. The new printing processes are smoother and also often blurrier. Then came the unfortunate idea of the self-adhesive stamp. A lot of self-adhesive things come off after years. Recently, Deutsche Post also came up with an idea that now grins at us as a disfiguring grimace on stamps, the QR code.
Where is the journey heading?
We stamp lovers can only shake our heads in resignation.
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Australia has been leading the world in sticker stamps for decades. I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water from the kettle. Allow to cool and right to go
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So true, thank you for sharing!
In Malaysia, we donāt use sticker stamps commonly, but it is totally okay! We wouldnāt mind at all (iād say personally)
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Iām from Canada and our stamps have been the sticker type for so long that Iām quite used to them. Itās been pretty rare to see the local post office sell the non-sticker postage stamps. The only places I could find the non-sticker type stamps is maybe at an antique store or a thrift store.
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I like sticker-stamps very much cause many of my artistic postcards are printed on a slippery, glossy or textured papers which makes the picture side look very beautiful and special, but regular stamps just donāt stick well to them!
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For me it doesnāt mater, most soak off with water except as previously stated newer US, some UK and newer Aussi stamps! Only if the post card is not to my liking do I take the stamp off! Some times the hand cancellations are worth saving or leave on the paper and cut a nice square around the stamp with a 1/4 border!
Canada stamps are easy to soak off so just use 3 Ps for international, 1 P for Dom, or have fun with smaller Denominations and add to 1.30 for the US. Not all post offices carry the smaller denominations but most do and they are pretty! Depending on the post card or if by envelope or if a stamp collector I sometimes use up to 10 stamps or more! One US post crosser sent me an envelope with the post card and it had 22 stamps on it almost all were different!
For interest I have my mail hand canceled even when mailing out from the US. The hand cancellations look better and you can usually read where they from! My favourite Canadian is hand cancelled from Old Crow Yukon and from the NWT last year!
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Iāve noticed that sticker stamps come off easily if they are put on a piece of washi tape, not paper.
Since washi is removable, the stamps that were put on top of it are easily peeled off with no soaking in chemicals.
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Try a product called UNDO adhesive remover. Itās available on Amazonā¦ it makes removing adhesive stamps a breeze.
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Iām a stamp collector and have never liked them, largely because theyāre a pain to remove from envelopes if you want to take them off and save them. Iāve heard some other countries that use sticker stamps use water-soluble glue so you can soak them off like the older stamps.
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I think gummed stamps are so much better - the texture is way nicer and it is so much easier to collect them in albums. Unfortunately so many countries introduce stickers or add QR codes, which changes the vibe of the idea so much. If stamp collectors were into this kind of modernity, they would send emailsā¦ but anyways, I never complain receiving a sticker, because I know that in some countries it is difficult to purchase gummed stamps.
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