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To remove from paper or not?

OhioCoinshooterOhioCoinshooter Posts: 8
in Stamps Forum
I bought a bunch of stamps at a flea market and found among them a Scott's #2 10c Washinton in great condition but is still on the paper. Will stamps this old be ruined if dipped in warm water? I would hate to wash it and have a rare stamp become a worthless piece of paper.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.


Richie

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    StampAlarmStampAlarm Posts: 1,668 ✭
    Are you talking about it being stuck to the page of an album? Or to an evelope? Is it mint or used? How do you know it is a Scott #2?



    Jerry
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    OhioCoinshooterOhioCoinshooter Posts: 8
    Here is a pic of the stamp. It seems it is still stuck to a piece of the original envelope. The features are great and it's in great shape. the only fault is the crease in the middle that is also in the envelope backing. Was wondering if it will degrade the value to remove it from the paper. Or should I have it graded and authenticated as is. Here is a photo of it as it sits currently.

    Richie

    image
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    dougwtxdougwtx Posts: 566 ✭✭
    The only time you would NOT remove it is when the postmark is "tied" to the paper. When you can see a town name or date and it overlaps on the stamp and paper or if there was enough paper to show the entire cancellation, its best to leave it alone.

    Your stamp would not be devalued by soaking it off. Unfortunately, that crease will decrease the value by mulitples of catalog value.
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    OhioCoinshooterOhioCoinshooter Posts: 8
    Will a stamp this old come through the soaking without losing color or anything? Not sure how much of the crease will be left after soaking either. The crease is in the envolope paper it is on. Possibly soaking it will relieve some of the crease in the stamp. At least being optomistic. Am not as interested in the value as much as retaining the integrity of the stamp. The population on these is less than 200 stamps known.

    Richie
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    dougwtxdougwtx Posts: 566 ✭✭
    Using plain water; maybe just slightly warm, but not hot; should not damage the stamp or color. Some older European stamps used color fast inks, but US stamps will be fine soaking. If it doesn't come loose, no harm is done by just leaving it on the paper either.

    Once a crease has broken the fibers in the paper, it can be made to look better, but then you are just devaluing the stamp further. It would be called a pressed crease then. Same thing happens with currency.

    I'm not sure about only 200 #2 in existence as a #2 is not really a rare stamp.
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    OhioCoinshooterOhioCoinshooter Posts: 8
    The population report might be only graded examples from PSE. That is on this website under Population Report . I do plan on getting this stamp graded though. So it will be one of less than 200 graded if that is the case.

    Thankyou for the replies about soaking. I am more confident about not destroying it or any value now.

    Richie
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    eduekuedueku Posts: 985
    Don't get it "graded" just get a regular UNgraded cert. It will get a LOW grade with the crease. By the way do you metal detect? Thought you might by your name. I do.
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