Stamp Tips
How to donate your stamps.
If you have an accumulation of new or used stamps that you can not use, sell or trade, consider donating them to one of the organizations listed below which are currently verified as active and accepting donations. 1. Leon Myers Stamp Center PO Box 1 Boys Town, NE 68010 2. Stamps for the Wounded PO Box 1125 Falls Church, VA 22041-0125 3. Postal History Foundation 920 N. 1st Avenue Tucson, AZ 85719 4. Stamp Collecting Clubs For Kids Attention: Robert W. Martin Kehei, HI 96753-1809 Donated stamps should be in good condition. They can be on or off paper. Sorting is not mandatory but can help. If sorted, it should be by US, Foreign or on-paper. Zip-Lock plastic bags work great for sorting. Before mailing be sure to include a note with your name and address. Donations to the listed organizations are tax deductible, however, it is the responsibility of the donor to prove the value. A list of items donated, Post Office mailing receipt and even photographs should be kept if you itemize and plan to tax deduct. Remember, IRS regulations require that to deduct any non-cash donation with a value over $5,000, the donor must have an appraisal made by a qualified appraiser and attach IRS Form 8283. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Contact these (WPS) club members if you do not want to mail your stamps or use them for an IRS deduction: John Daniels, to donate a collection to the WPS or to donate off-paper stamps, sorted to distinguish US from foreign. Bruce Patterson, for donating stamps on-paper (do not trim them). He will consolidate and forward them to the Civil War Round Table organization which distributes them to a disabled Veterans organization. |
REMOVING SELF ADHESIVE STAMPS FROM PAPER
By Joseph Russell of The Myrtle Beach Stamp Club Since the early 1990’s, a problem has been encountered in removing self adhesive stamps from paper. Old fashioned soaking in luke warm water does not work since the paper manufacturers no longer include the water soluble layer in their products. The result is that soaking in water does either nothing to release the stamp from the paper or the ink flakes off if the stamp has been left in the water for too long a period of time. An article in the October, 2010 issue of THE AMERICAN PHILATELIST seems to have come up with a solution this problem. Their article talks about Bestine, a solvent, which is a hydrocarbon containing Heptane. The long term use of this product raises the question of safety and the product is somewhat hard to find, being available mainly in art supply stores. An alternative to Bestine is discussed and while still a solvent and flammable, is a non-aerosol, natural product with a citrus scent. Here is what you need: A can of Pure Citrus (found in the air freshener section of Walmart or Home Depot) A paper towel Talcum Powder Clip the stamp off the envelope leaving at least 1/4 inch of envelope all around Turn the clipping over and spray sparingly with the Pure Citrus Turn the clipping over and bend or roll slightly (just until one corner of the stamp is released) Slowly peel the stamp off the paper (the adhesive will be on the stamp) Place the stamp face down on the paper towel and allow to dry completely (about 20 minutes) Dip your finger in the talcum power and rub it on the entire back of the stamp The stickiness will disappear and your stamp is ready to mount in your album Before this method was discovered, the suggested procedure was to leave 1/4 inch of paper around the stamp and mount the whole clipping in your album. This led to too much bulk on the album pages because many of the modern stamps are self adhesive. This product is used by Home Depot employees to remove sales stickers from products in their store. I personally removed on stamp from yellow paper and there was no transfer of color to the stamp. Removing stamps from red, green or blue paper should be done carefully or remove a damaged stamp from paper of those colors just to see if there is any transfer of color as often happens during soaking in water. There is also a Vanilla-scented air freshener and it may work as well but the article seemed to focus on the citrus scented product. |