I’m not sure why we have both. I would have thought adhesive ones were better, you don’t have to lick them. 
But I also think adhesive would be more secure… No idea. 
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We have both. To send in Belgium it’s usually self-adhesive. To Europe mostly lick and stick except the Christmas stamp is self-adhesive. The King stamp has both. To the world it’s all lick and stick excep the King stamp. In the post office they usually only have the self-adhesive King stamps so I always buy them online to get more interesting ones. Still the choices are not that great in Belgium
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I am not any proper philatelist even if I collect stamps. Are stamps with printed on demand - value still called stamps? Machine-printed stamps? I guess “franking label”- term is saved only for those labels with printed value the postoffices attach? In simplest form they are just plain white labels, but once I saw really beautiful franking labels with illustrated landscapes and animals. Had they been actual stamps, I would have bought some. Anyway, I have noticed that some countries has just a few patterns for those printed postal fees, but for example Ireland has a big variety. (They are a bit like address labels, a picture in one corner and franking next to it).
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For those who like to use classic gummed stamps, but do not like to lick them, there are useful water pens. These are pens with a water tank inside and a felt surface that always stays a little damp. With this surface you can wipe over the stamp and then glue it on.
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It’s a bit tricky to decide what is a stamp and what is not, as this is not always clear from its appearance, because the difference is by the allowed type of usage. Generally there are three types of pre-paying postage fees: 1. stamps, 2. postal meter, 3. postage paid
Stamps (legally this includes postal stationery, i.e. postcards, envelopes etc. with preprinted stamps or other way of preprinted paid postage) are tokens pre-paid for postage that can be used by anyone inside the area of validity (in most cases one country, but local issues exist) during the time of validity. Stamps may have a limited usability (e.g. airmail surcharge stamps that cannot be used for regular postage, or registration stamps only valid to pay for registered letters), the crucial point is it can be used by anyone anywhere antytime, the usage is unlimited.
Postal Meter is a more restricted form of pre-paid postage. It is always printed by a machine, and it differs from machine-printed stamps that the usage is restricted. Most postal meters show the date and location it was printed and is supposed to be mailed, but exceptions occur. In most cases the restriction is time-wise - a printed postage meter strip must be mailed the same day (many postal authorities allow for one additional day), but other restrictions are sometimes used. In Switzerland postal meters are limited to one person or company. Normally next to the area with the postage amount is a “cancellation” area with date and city name, but if the owener of the machine and permit is travelling, they can print only the postage amount area without the cancellation, go to any Swiss post office and mail them there after showing the permit. These postal meters will then be cancelled like stamps, and to make it worse they look almost exactly like the older Swiss automate stamps, but postal meter “stamps” alsways have a number starting with P in the bottom, the number is missing for automate stamps, with the exception of the first 4 machines who used the numbers A1, A2, A3 and A4.
Postage Paid are usually pre-printed on enveopes, but hand-stamped ones exist as well. They usually include the words “postage paid” or “port payee” and are not by themselves pre-printed postage but only the notice that the postage was paid by cash instead of by stamps.
Postal automation has created some new types of franking that cannot always easily be divided between stamps, postal meters and postage paid. You need to check what the postal authority says about usage. Automate stamps (often abbreviated ATM, which comes from the German word Automatenmarke, the German-language area had the majority of ATM collectors for a long time) are not just vended by an automate, but the value (in some cases the whole motif) is only printed at the time of sale, but you can use them freely like stamps. There are automate stamps that include the date, some even the city, e.g. Brazil, the last USA automate stamp and newer automate stamps from the UK, Denmark, Ireland etc. In these cases the postal authority has allowed these stamps to be used regardless of the date that is printed on them, so they are stamps. Other automates are issuing postal meter labels, or print direktly on the card or envelope. There usually is a note on the machine, or during the on-screen order process that the label is only valid that day, or even only valid if mailed through the postbox next to the machine. These are clearly postal meters.
Then the internet created another new method of franking called Computer-Vended Postage (CVP). As the name suggests, CVP is printed using a computer. That means if your postal aministration offers CVP, you can print your own stamps or postal meter (depending on the rules) on your own computer printer. Somne CVP are stamps, because the one who printed them can use them at any time and even give them to other persons, while other CVP must be used on the day of printing or is invalid. Some CVP allow you to use your own picture to decorate it, other (like German Post) only allow a preselected number of images.
As you can see, postal automation is very interesting, but it is also difficult to get the necessary information from the postal authorities to know what type of postage they actually issue.
@Speicher3: Nice! Can you buy these at German post offices?
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A few years ago these water pens were offered in the Deutsche Post online store but they aren’t available there anymore. But you can still find them in different online stores.
The USA had triangular stamps too in the 1990s.
In the Netherlands we have both types too. Self-adhesive mostly for standard stamps, sold in sheets of 5 or 10. Special stamps can be ordered from the website of PostNL and there are some website that sell stamps slightly cheaply from old postage stamp collectors who stopped.
We also have the possibility to print postage on a sticker, it looks like this (Computer-Vended Postage as described above):
But I generally don’t use that for postcrossing.
You can also buy postage online, you get a letter code and you write that on your letter, it looks like this (I put the priority label on the card):
But I have only used it once for postcrossing, Michiel
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Most stamps issued by China Post are gummed ones. However China Post do issue some adhesive stamps ， such as the 3-yuan Bamboo stamp and the 80-cent sailboat stamp. We can also print labels using the postage postmark machine.
Actually the gum on the back of the gummed stamps are of low quality (Beijing stamp printing House sucks!)So i do hope that China post can introduce more adhesive ones.
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We had stamp vending machines here in the US in the old days. You could only buy books of first class stamps from the ones we had in the 1970s and 80s. When I lived in northwest Ohio (2003-06) the post office had a machine in the lobby which would print postage on stickers. They weren’t pretty stickers. The machine also weighed mail and calculated postage if you asked it to.
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When it comes to Poland we only have standard “licking” stamps and I’m so happy about that because for me it is the best form of stamp that I love from childhood. To be honest I don’t understand other form, for me it is not a stamp just a sticker. But of course I don’t mind to get them on the cards if someone prefer to use such ones. I think I wouldn’t survive the fact if they introduced here self-adhesive one.
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I just stumblwd over this poem by Joachim Ringelnatz, he clearly was for stamp licking, (but self adhesive was not introduce at that time, I think):
Die Briefmarke
Ein männlicher Briefmark erlebte
Was Schönes, bevor er klebte.
Er war von einer Prinzessin beleckt.
Da war die Liebe in ihm erweckt.
Er wollte sie wiederküssen,
Da hat er verreisen müssen.
So liebte er sie vergebens.
Das ist die Tragik des Lebens!
Translation
The postage stamp
A stamp of the masculine gender
lived through a moment quite tender.
Before adhering, a princess licked him.
Love’s wakening had made him victim.
He wanted to kiss her, but hey,
he soon had to travel away.
His love was waisted in the main:
the tragedy of life yet once again.
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As a stamp collector, self-adhesives are the bane of my existence. The oil-based glue they use these days won’t soak off; I have to use Goo-Gone, which is a petroleum product that stinks and leaves everything slippery. Is there any safer, less messy alternative?
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Try “Pure Citrus” air freshener. It’s all natural and made in Texas. The only strange thing about it is that it will make your stamps smell like oranges.
We have both types in the UK. The first class and second class stamp books you buy at supermarkets etc., our Christmas stamps, and most of the low value make-up stamps are self-adhesive, but all our special stamps (the ones with the interesting images!) and country definitives are traditional lick-and-stick. I much prefer the lick-and-stick type, I think the images look nicer as they are less shiny!
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Essentially all the stamps in Turkey are gummed/lick & stick. I’ve only seen two that had adhesive, and both were special cases - one was made of fabric and the other was some sort of recycled material.
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We have both in China. I often use self-adhesive 0.8 stamps in meet-ups. It’s really convenient if you have a huge amount of postcards to send. However, I will use lick-and-stick on other postcards since they are more variable in design. (I never really lick the stamp, but use glue, because I don’t think simply licking them can make the gum sticky enough. If unfortunately, some stamps get off during the voyage, the card will get lost.)
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Over here in Singapore, most self adhesive stamps are 1st local stamps, which are usually used to send mail within Singapore, while other stamps with higher definitions are gummed. I definitely prefer gummed stamps as I can remove them more easily from the envelope, and not accidentally destroy them like what I did to some of my self adhesive ones.
For self adhesive stamps, I don’t lick them of course, but I have a jar of water beside me on my desk which I use to dab on the gummed stamps and stick them on postcards and envelopes.
There are also vending machines here, but we buy postage labels there, which is a alternative for stamps. Although there is a picture on it, it isn’t as nice as stamps.
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I wonder about the ingredients of the gum or glue used on stamps. How could we found out? Does someone know if information is available?
Are those ingredients veganist or vegan? Or dead animal parts in the glue?
Some countries have a stronger taste then others . I have a small sponge for wetting stamps, but usualy just lick as I forget this item.
My tongue is always there when writing cards and it is just an easy action and habbit.
Very interesting topic. We have both versions in the Czech Republic. I prefer stickers as they are much easier to use but they are quite rare. Majority of stamps are still the old licking technology. I find it especially hard to lick very big stamps. It is uncomfortable and I have to do it in sections 
I wish Czech Post would fully switch to stickers. The transition has already happen with envelopes as far as I know. At least the last batch I bought was not licking type. I highly appreciate that because I always feared I would cut my tongue. Anyway, it is also interesting to me how the taste of the glue changes. I remember it used to be kind of sweet, then there was a period when it was terribly bitter. Now it doesn’t have very strong taste but is still on the bitter side.
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In Austria we have both. Definitives are “to stick only” while the majority of special stamps are “to lick only”. I prefer to use special stamps on my mail.
I stopped licking in March 2020 and after struggling for a bit with sponges I discovered brush pens. One of the best stamp accessory EVER! And no more cut tongue when sealing an envelope 
They just need to be flushed clean every once in while. I use them for my ink diary as well - always great to have multiple “jobs” for one item
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