How to remove cigarette smell from stamps?
I’m a non-smoker, so one of my greatest annoyances is ending up with otherwise good stuff that has cigarette smell all over. So how do I get rid off the smell?
My personal approach is to air the stamps outdoors (in carage, balcony or similar) from few days up to few weeks during the very cold (-20 up to -40 celsius degrees) and very dry season in winter. The closest comparison to results is fresh laundry. Using this method I’ve done pretty much anything from single stamps up to gigantic purchase containing 30kg’s of “smelly kiloware“.
1875 Japan 3 Rin tobacco tax (duty) stamp
As my method is doable only in limited regions of the world, I’d be interested to know about alternative solutions that other collectors have tried (successfully or not) … I’ve read that placing stamps into a sealed space with baking soda or crushed charcoal would do the trick also. Does anyone have expertise / advice of this? And all the other methods and opinions on subject are highly welcomed.
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I ran into this same problem when I collected trading cards. I would air them out by leaving them on a flat surface for a few days. I’d then store the cards with bubble gum to give them the “gum” smell. I’m not sure how to get stamps to smell “post office fresh” I think the baking soda is a good idea and I like your “airing the laundry” trick too.
Hey Keijo,
I find that soaking stamps in cold water with clear liquid dishsoap works well.
If there are also smoke stains, I will dip them for around 5 seconds in a 1/10 mix of bleach and coldwater after the soap soak. Rinsing immediately with cold water is important to avoid the colors from fading (I stir the rinse water a bit to help remove the bleach faster). Always avoid warm or hot water or the colors will bleach.
I find that the short bleach bath is safe for most stamps, but do not try it with expensive stamps unless you have first tested it with a similar inexpensive stamp, preferably from the same issue with the same color or a damaged copy of the same stamp.
For large quantities or albums I use the same method as you.
David
Yikes… Seriously, I’m not a fan of chemicals. Organic dish soap I might try, but bleach is way too powerful stuff do to anything IMO. I’ve seen lots of bleached stamps that shine “whiter than the white” (not to mention how bizarre they look under UV).
Just to update with some experiment results….
First, I tried baking soda approach. IMHO it didn’t work well. After one week stamps had less smell than before, but definitely nothing compared to “fresh laundry”.
Then I tried David’s dish soap method (with luke warm water). It works much better IMHO. I was surprised to see such yellowish water (nicotine?) coming off from stamps.
As I am primarily a collector of mint stamps, and, to the best of my knowledge, a “smell” will not reduce value – I am forced to consider it as part of the “history” of the stamp. Of course, if the stamps were poorly stored and the exposure to smoke caused discoloration, it could, in all probability, reduce the value of the stamp (stained). But years of experience have taught me one basic rule of thumb,..the more you try to fix, the more damage you are likely to cause! Dry, fresh winter air might help, but past that, I’d be careful. For used stamps, a simple re-wash in clean, unadulterated water shouldn’t hurt. I don’t know enough about the chemistry of glues over the past couple of hundred years to start combining them with sodium hyochlorite or sodium bicarbonate to give an opinion.