Reclaiming Stamps Tutorial 2 - Self-adhesive

Some weeks ago, in my first Free Stamps Tutorial, I shared how I went about reclaiming unused gummed (vintage) postage stamps if you mess up addressing an envelope. I promised to write up something for modern, self-adhesive stamps at some point in the future. Well, the future is here!!

Disclaimer: as always, I'm not an expert. I'm also not a "real" stamp collector, in that I'm generally interested in reclaiming unused stamps to put back in my collection, although I'm starting to use canceled stamps as part of collages. To separate stamps in order to store them in albums probably requires special steps and gloves or something like that, so if that's your goal, I advise seeking out advice from professionals. 

First, let me show you why you can't just use the soak-in-warm-water method for newer stamps. This was a stamp that I cut off one of my turquoise envelopes that I messed up.

Not only did some of the dye from the paper leach onto the stamp, if you look closely, you can see that it's wrinkled and messy. It is probably still usable, but certainly not pretty.

I tried a couple different methods with the stamps I had saved. None worked, so I had to wait until I had more stamps. I received an envelope with a stamp that I really wanted to keep and display (it was sent for that purpose), so I decided to try something besides the non-effective water methods and hit the search tools.

I landed on the American Philatelic Society's Tips and Links page, and followed the link in the "Soaking Self-Adhesives" section to a PDF about the magic of  removing self-adhesive stamps from envelopes. I recommend that you read the article, but here is my experience.

Materials: The article recommends one of two products: an adhesive remover called "Bestine," which I could not find locally, or a 100% natural citrus oil product. I was able to find "Pure Citrus," the exact product recommended, in the air freshener section at Home Depot for $4.97, so I'm basing this entry on using that. You want one labeled 100% natural, containing just orange oil. (OdoBan makes an air freshener/adhesive remover (right on the label) that's 99.5% natural and costs $1 or so less. It may be perfectly fine, but I went with the 100%.)

In addition to the Pure Citrus, you need some paper towels and cotton swabs. I suggest having a piece of parchment paper handy as well.

Instructions

1. For plain paper envelopes*, cut out the stamp, leaving a little border of paper. 
2. Spray a little of the oil into a small dish (disposable plastic cup, etc., is great, but regular dishes will wash up fine with soap & hot water). 
3. Put the stamp face down on a couple of layers of folded paper toweling.
4. Dip one of the swabs into the oil and rub it over the paper until it's lightly saturated. Wait a few seconds. The stamp should easily peel away from the paper. If it doesn't, just add a little more, wait, then try again. You can also spray directly onto the back of the piece, but when I did it in a dish, the next stamp was saturated (it's fine, but I wanted to avoid that). 
5. There will be some adhesive remaining on the stamp. The article suggests rubbing a little talc on it, but we didn't have any, so I took another swab with a little oil on it, and gently rubbed the back of the stamp. Most or all of the adhesive came away.
6. Let it air dry for a few minutes, then store in a folded piece of parchment, keeping the stamps separate. After a while, you'll know if any adhesive remains and you can store those stamps in a glassine envelope or folded parchment paper until ready to glue onto envelopes and use.**

*If the envelope is thick, you can work on the stamp where it is, face-up, but slowly. Don't soak the whole thing, just wet an edge with the oil, get the edge up, then gently rub the swab between the stamp and paper, pushing towards where they meet, peeling slowly until it comes away. Then, follow steps 5 & 6, above.

**If the stamps are from another country, you can always keep them just to look at if they're awesome - like this one - or share with a collector.

Seriously, isn't this stamp awesome?! I couldn't tell until I saw it close up that they were indoors, in a blanket fort, which is even cooler than outdoors in a tent, which is what I originally thought. Because I've decided that this older child is reading a ghost story to the younger one, it's going to look wonderful next to my Haunted Canada stamps...as soon as I figure out how and where to display them! They're really about storytelling and pretend, but hey, I used my imagination to create a back story!

The little flecks are from the envelope, which was very heavy-duty, with a gold foil pattern.