Recently I have been noticing that a lot of the collections I have been stripping are full of mint stamps with slightly toned gum. Some countries have had this problem for years; but of late (1998), I have been seeing the problem on stamps from more and more countries.

This used to be a problem encountered mainly on stamps of Italy; but in the last year I have picked up collections from France, French Colonies, Portugese Colonies, San Marino, and South Africa where the stamps look fine but the gum was toned from slight to heavy. The stamps involved are from between the wars, and I am beginning to think that collectors of many countries are going to be dealing with this problem on an ever-increasing scale.

At present, it seems worse on collections that were stored for long periods of time in warm places; but I am beginning to see the start of the problem in collections where the album, hinges and interleaving show little toning themselves. The gums from these periods are not only turning color, but they seem to be speeding the deterioration of the paper of the stamps. The soft paper commemoratives like those of the US and France are beginnning to have a serious darkening problem. Used stamps that were soaked years ago and have been cared for often are much lighter and brighter than mint stamps that have lain in some album on a shelf for the same period.

It is beginning to look to me like many of the stamps from the inter-war period were printed on acid paper. If this is the case, only used stamps and those unused with no gum will be able to be treated to preserve them. Check out your collection and make sure it is stored in a cool place. One last thought, soaking the toned gum off the stamps does not do much good as the paper usually retains the stains.

The above got me thinking about all the self-adhesive stamps that are now being issued and all the people who are buying NH copies of this stuff for their collections. Remember what happpened to the first self-adhesive issue of the US? The glue bled through the stamps. Interestingly, I have seen sheets of this stamp that were stored in a cool and dry place where there is no evidence of this bleed. Over the years as an editor for various newsletters I have accumulated a pile of odds and ends of self-adhesive mailing labels. I have been finding that many of these labels fall off with the passage of time. The adhesive has turned to powder or it just dried up.

What do you think that this bodes for mint, NH, self-adhesive collecting? Maybe it is time to go back to collecting used only!