Soak US

From StampWantsWiki

Return to Stamp Soaking Home page

Soakability Index and Discussions for US Self-Adhesive Issue. Click on the Scott # for details about that issue (if available).

Scott No.	Description	Soakability Factor (in water)	Comments
1552	Weather Vane	D	Article in Linn's recommends not to soak. Watermark fluid will dissolve gum, though.
2799-2802	Christmas, 1993	A
3052E	Pink Rose	D	Article in Linn's recommends not to soak.
3293	Sonoran Desert	C	Article in Linn's says its difficult, may take hours.
3317-3320	Aquarium Fish	C	Article in Linn's says its difficult, may take hours.
3398	Adoption	C	Article in Linn's says its difficult, may take hours.
3427	Margaret Chase Smith	A
3435	Albert Sabin	A
3506	Great Plains Prairie	C	Article in Linn's says its difficult, may take hours.
3537a-3540a	Santas	D	Article in Linn's recommends not to soak.
3766	$1 Rockefeller Center (Wisdom)	B+	Use care, but will work well.
3792-3801b	Eagle PreSorts	A
3844-3853	Eagle PreSorts	A
3855-3856	Lewis & Clark Portraits	C	Ink may flake off. Use caution.
3863	Summer Olympics	D	Ink flakes off. Do not soak.
3945-3948	Constellations	D	Ink flakes off. Do not soak.
3980	Flag and Lady Liberty, die cut 11 coil	C	Article in Linn's says its difficult, may take hours.
4003	Common Buckeye Butterfly coil	A
4018-4019	X-Planes	C	Beware! Stamps crackle! Very hard to get a clean used copy off paper, but it's possible if you have patience (see pic)
4080-4083	Baseball Sluggers	A
4084	DC Comics - Comic Book Super Heroes	A
4085-4088	American Motorcycles	A
4089-4098	Quilts of Gees Bend	B	A little challenging sometimes, but not too bad. Don't use cold water.
4099	Southern Florida Wetlands	A
4100	Madonna & Child	C,D	Ink flakes off. Do not soak. (Or use extreme patience if you do try. Watermark fluid method may help.)
4101-4104	Snowflakes (pane)	A
4105-4108	Snowflakes (conv. booklet)	A
4109-4112	Snowflakes (vending booklet)	A
4113-4116	Snowflakes (ATM sheetlet)	D-	EXTREMELY thin paper used. Disintegrates easily in water
4117	Eid (39c)	A
4118	Hanukkah (39c)	A
4119	Kwanzaa (39c)	A
4120	Ella Fitzerald	C	Ink may flake off. Use caution.
4121	Oklahoma	A
4122	Love / Kisses	A
4123	International Polar Year SS (84c)	C	Ink may flake off. Use caution.
4124	Longfellow	A
4125-4128	Liberty Bell (Forever)	A,B
4127d	Forever Liberty Bell (2008)	B
4129-4135	Flag over tan varieties (non-denom)	A,B	mostly A
4136	Jamestown	C	difficult gum, face cracks easily
4138, 4140	Big Horn Sheep (17c)	A
4139, 4141, 4142	Florida Panther (26c)	A
4143	Star Wars - sheet of 15	D-	Do not soak - gum is like Super Glue!
4144	Air Force One ($4.60)	A	With a long warm soak, 2 copies I had on Priority Mail envelope corners floated off the paper!
4145	Marine One ($16.25)	?
4146-4150	Pacific Lighthouses	A
4151	Wedding Heart (41c)	A
4152	Wedding Heart (58c)	A
4153-4156, 4153a-4156a	Pollination	A
4157, 4158	Patriotic Banners	A
4159	Marvel Comics Superheroes (41c)	A
4160-4163	Speedboats	D	stamp front will separate from back layer
4164	Purple Heart (41c)	D	stamp front will separate from back layer
4165	Louis Comfort Tiffany	A
4166-4185	Beautiful Blooms - coils and booklets	A
4186-4191	Flag over tan varieties (41c)	A,B	mostly A
4192-4195	Disney	A
4196	Celebrate	B
4197	Jimmy Stewart	C,D	stamp front will separate from back layer. ink cracks, too
4198	Alpine Tundra	A
4199	Gerald Ford	D-	stamp front will separate from back layer
4200	Jury Duty	D-	stamp front will separate from back layer
4201	Mendez v Westminster	D-	stamp front will separate from back layer
4202	Eid (41c)	B
4203-4204	Polar Lights (41c)	C,D	Article in Linn's recommends to leave on paper
4205	Yoda	C
4206	Madonna and Child	C	Hard to gently rub off gum without cracking gold face. Can easily get removed from paper with by submersing in watermark fluid, but gum residue will still remain. Perhaps you can transfer it to some excess backing paper.
4207-4210	Holiday Knits (Conv. booklet, large size)	A	(die cut on 2 or 3 sides only)
4207-4210	Holiday Knits (from pane, large size)	B	(die cut on 4 sides) - Note: These were given the same cat. numbers as above but these are harder to remove than the booklet version.
4211-4214	Holiday Knits (Vending booklet, small size)	A
4215-4218	Holiday Knits (ATM sheetlet)	D-	EXTREMELY thin paper used. Disintegrates easily in water
4219	Hanukkah (41c)	B
4220	Kwanzaa (41c)	D-	stamp front will separate from back layer
4221	Lunar New Year	A
4222	Charles W. Chesnutt	A
4223	Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings	A
4224-4227	American Scientists: Gerty Cori, Linus Pauling, Edwin Hubble, John Bardeen	A
3749A	Tiffany Lamp (2008 date)	A
4228-4231	Flags 24/7-WAG variety (water activated gum)	A
4232-4235	Flags 24/7 - square corners-die cut 9½	C	backing doesn't release easily
4236-4239	Flags 24/7 - angled corners-die cut 11	A
4240-4243	Flags 24/7 - deep cuts in peaks and valleys-die cut 8½	A
4244-4247	Flags 24/7 - rounded corners-die cut 11	A
4248-4252	American Journalists	D-	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
4253-4257	27c Tropical Fruit - from Pane	D	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
4258-4262	27c Tropical Fruit - from Coil	A
4264	42c Purple Heart Self-Adhesive	D-	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
3427A	59c James Michener	D	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
3432A	76c Edward Trudeau	D	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
4265	42c Frank Sinatra	D-	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
4266	42c Minnesota Statehood	D-	stamp/adhesive does not release from paper
4267	62c Dragonfly	C	Gum will release with patience
4268	$4.80 Mount Rushmore	?
4269	$16.50 Hoover Dam	?
4270	Love - All Heart	C	backing doesn't release easily
4271	Wedding Hearts (42c)	D
4272	Wedding Hearts (59c)	D
4273-4282	Flags of Our Nation coils	B+
4333	Charles & Ray Eames	D	Gum doesn't release from stamp
4334	Beijing Olympics	B
	Bette Davis	?
	Black Cinema	D-	Gum doesn't release, stamp wants to curl, ink cracks. Do not soak.
	42c Celebrate	B-	Gum will release, with enough patience
	Disney - Imagination	C
	Tailfins and Chrome	?
	Albert Bierstadt	?
	Sunflower	?
	Take Me Out to the Ball Game	A
	Latin Jazz	?
	Alzheimer's	?
	42c Eid	?
	Great Lakes Dunes	?
	Holiday Nutcrackers	?
	Madonna and Child	?
	42c Hanukkah	?
	42c Kwanzaa	?

Back of the Book Issues

Scott No.	Description	Soakability Factor (in water)	Comments
C133	Niagara Falls 48c	A
C134	Rio Grande 40c	A
C135	Grand Canyon 60c	A
C136	Nine-Mile Prairie 70c	A
C137	Mount McKinley 80c	A
C138	Acadia National Park 60c	A
C139	Bryce Canyon 63c	D	This one's a royal pain. If you attempt it, don't rub off the gum with any force at all and leave yourself lots of time to do it. If you have many of these (they are fairly common), they are good to practice technique. If you master this one, others will seem easy.
C140	Great Smoky Mountains 75c	A
C141	Yosemite National Park 84c	A
C142	Okefenokee Swamp 69c	B	Just take your time.
C143	Hagatna Bay 90c	D-, B	Do not soak! Stamp comes off ok, but ink becomes ruined. See pic! But there may be some different opinions... mine may have been a fluke. - I didn't have too much trouble (another pic added) - Did have to keep the stamp flat during the entire process, though.
C144	Thirteen Mile Woods 72c	B-	Just take your time.
C145	St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands 94c	D	Every one attempted thinned substantially. Gum won't release from stamp. Keep on paper.

Return to Stamp Soaking Home page