Hazardous effects of using chemicals to soak stamps

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

I am not going to lie when it comes to soaking stamps off of paper by using any sort of chemicals — you won’t find me doing it.

The risk of damage and long-term effects from any chemical are really unknown, which is one of the contributing factors as to why Scott catalog editors use closely clipped on-piece examples in order to value used modern self-adhesive stamps.

In mid-December collector Tom Zuercher of Ohio contacted Linn’s with two cautionary tales of his soaking adventures using the product Pure Citrus. One website I found stated the product’s usefulness as being “excellent for adhesive removal, ink removal, gum removal, oil and general grease and grime stains.”

Removal was the part that jumped out at me after Zuercher sent in examples of the United States 2024 3¢ Peonies coil stamp (Scott 5904). He stated that with the stamp shown on the top nearby he applied light pressure using the adhesive remover; on the stamp at the bottom, he used moderate pressure. Moderate pressure removed the denomination and other inks.

Zuercher also commented that Pure Citrus has an effect on the foil used on some recent U.S. stamps such as the 2022 Year of the Tiger stamp (Scott 5662) where the purple foil was removed fairly easily, as shown nearby.

The cautionary tale with foil being easily removed is that you should definitely have stamps expertized if a foil-missing error does turn up. There are ways to tell if the foil was removed chemically.

While Zuercher stated that he’s been successfully using Pure Citrus on stamps for more than 15 years, I’m still very hesitant in suggesting its use. The risk of damaging a good stamp just seems to be too high.

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