Stamps on Envelopes

littlemac1980

I have a large collection of stamps from around the world. They were my fathers, he kept them in various forms, some in albums, some ripped off envelopes, some in sealed bags, and others loose.

I'm just wondering, because there are so many with lots of them attached to various envelopes, some of which are large and padded, would it be a bad idea to rip the envelopes up to preserve the watermark and stamp, or would that affect the value.

I'm wondering this because most of the album ones he has, which he bought in booklets from a british philatelic society/company are clearly watermarked but have been removed from any envelope of any sort to put in the albums.

littlemac1980

Anybody???

coylemj

A 'watermark' is the collections of letters or symbols visible when you hold a piece of paper up to the light, what you are talkng about is the postmark which in most cases doesn't add any value or significance to the stamp, unless it's a first day cover.

There are exceptions of course, if it was a letter or postcard sent from the Titanic and taken off in Southampton, Cherbourg or Queenstown for example then it would have great value and you'd definitely preserve the whole item intact.

Otherwise I recall as a young boy cutting round the stamp leaving about half an inch of the envelope around the edges of the stamp and then soaking the stamp and surrounding paper in a bowl of warm water to separate them.

littlemac1980

Yes thanks coylemj, of course I meant the postmark, I don't really know why I wrote watermark.

Yeah that's what my father had done with a lot of the stamps he had, but my understanding is that unless its a particularly unique special envelope and postmark, then removing the stamp from a common addressed envelope in the way you mention shouldn't affect its value. I was hoping someone could confirm that to me.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of stamps, and with a good proportion of them attached to the envelopes, they take up so much space. I'd like to make the collection more manageable and accessible.

Missent

Littlemac

I'd very slow to remove any stamps from envelopes until you know what you have. Common stamps with rare postmarks are much more desirable on an entire rather than on piece and, if the stamps are rare, the entire can increase its value from 4x to the sky being the limit. Some rare stamps are not known at all on entires and, as your father clearly spent money on the collection, a cautious approach would be the best option.

I would suggest contacting a dealer to see if they can give an opinion on the collection.

littlemac1980

Missent wrote: »

Littlemac

I'd very slow to remove any stamps from envelopes until you know what you have. Common stamps with rare postmarks are much more desirable on an entire rather than on piece and, if the stamps are rare, the entire can increase its value from 4x to the sky being the limit. Some rare stamps are not known at all on entires and, as your father clearly spent money on the collection, a cautious approach would be the best option.

I would suggest contacting a dealer to see if they can give an opinion on the collection.

Thanks Missent, that seems like sound advice, I'll do what you suggest.