Post by darkormex on Jun 22, 2014 18:09:34 GMT -5
As a kid stamp collector it was pretty inevitable that you received a packet or set or two of stamps from Czechoslovakia. Invariably they were CTO complete sets or shorts sets (minus the high values) and I remember promptly hinging them and putting them in my Harris Traveler stamp album. I remember they always had shiny, sticky gum on the back that one could not touch for more than a few seconds without one's fingers getting stuck to the stamp.
I was reminded of those days as I have been working on the Czechoslovakia collection I bought a couple of months ago. The stamps are hinged onto what looks like blank, white printer paper and in random order. Most are CTO with gum and about 50% of them are stuck to the paper due to time or too much moisture applied to the hinge and then the back of the stamp.
There is always a decision to make with CTO mint stamps...a. do I remove them from the paper hoping that they will pull clean away via the hinge and hope that the gum is not stuck to the paper or b. do I cut around the stamp, leaving some or all of the stuck paper and soak them.
I have learned over time to test for both scenarios and now have two piles of stamps, those that came away cleanly and those that are in a bowl ready to soak.
There is inevitably, however, that tragic moment when you make the hasty decision to remove the stamp and realize it was stuck down in some small area and when the paper comes away there is a small area that is not only without gum but also thinned.
I was reminded of those days as I have been working on the Czechoslovakia collection I bought a couple of months ago. The stamps are hinged onto what looks like blank, white printer paper and in random order. Most are CTO with gum and about 50% of them are stuck to the paper due to time or too much moisture applied to the hinge and then the back of the stamp.
There is always a decision to make with CTO mint stamps...a. do I remove them from the paper hoping that they will pull clean away via the hinge and hope that the gum is not stuck to the paper or b. do I cut around the stamp, leaving some or all of the stuck paper and soak them.
I have learned over time to test for both scenarios and now have two piles of stamps, those that came away cleanly and those that are in a bowl ready to soak.
There is inevitably, however, that tragic moment when you make the hasty decision to remove the stamp and realize it was stuck down in some small area and when the paper comes away there is a small area that is not only without gum but also thinned.
