Self adhesive postage stamps

[Stargazer]

Does anyone know of a way to remove these stamps if they have been incorrectly stuck onto a letter or parcel as steam does not do the trick as with lick on stamps?

[tenrec]

If you don't mind destroying the envelope then just cut round the stamp and use sticky tape to attach to other envelope.

[sprayermick]

As far as I know they have been designed with little tabs that break off if you try to remove the stamp, this is supposed to stop the re-use of unfranked stamps but as you say it's an expensive pain in the A**e if you put the stamp on incorrectly.

[DrFilth]

the latest issue have a new glue and unless they are on a plastic kind of paper do what tenrec has posted as the little security things fall out

on most you can peel them very slowly and they come off

not that i have ever done anything like this and i am only explaining to you to get your own stamp off

[sprayermick]

Just for the record I did what tenrec said, cut arond the stamp and stuck it on a new envelope but the person I sent it to had a card put trough their door by the postman saying extra money had to be paid for a re-using a stamp before they would deliver it.

[Stargazer]

Is there a substance such as white spirit, meths or paintbrush cleaner that will dissolve the stickiness. I have several unfranked stamps cut from packages but can't get any of them off without damaging the stamp. I know they were designed so as not to be able to reuse unfranked ones but that's what we all try and do surely. Honest?

[spudqueen]

Tut, tut, tenrec, you shouldn't stick stamps down with sticky tape as they then cannot be franked. Nothing to stop you using prittstick though.

[tenrec]

Sprayermick, I have done this loads of times, and never had that happen. Maybe I've just been lucky.

[tenrec]

Spudqueen, I stick the surrounding paper with sticky tape, not the actual stamp.

[boxtops]

I peel off as much as I can if I make a mistake like that :-) then restick the stamp on the new envelope with Pritt, on the back. Don't sellotape it, it looks like a re-use and the PO don't like that.

[DrFilth]

up until about 2 weeks back the quickest i did was 15 seconds the longest about 2 minutes

this was only to test it could be done ( and show a friend ) not cheat the system in anyway

[tenrec]

I should add that I am taking unfranked stamps from envelopes that have not entered the postal system, not franked stamps that have been missed by the postal system. I have paid for these stamps.

[boxtops]

Yes, I understand that, tenrec :-)

[daisya]

All you do is soak them in water after cutting them off the envelope but leave a cm or so round the stamp.

[DrFilth]

daisya that does not work with the new security stamps as the patches fall out

[daisya]

DR.....not always ;-)

[DrFilth]

:)

[Stargazer]

I use them again (or I used to) when the Mail has failed to frank them. HOWEVER I am reluctant to do this if the recipient might get charged double for improperly stamped packages. I am sending some airmail letters and wonder if in the countries they arrive in they will be chucked out. I have noticed that packages that have the large size stamps on are more likely not to be franked. The peel off stickers the Post Office applies cannot be reused for obvious reasons.

[maggiebee]

In Memoriam

by Ewart Alan Mackintosh (killed in action 21st November 1917 aged 24)

So you were David’s father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Oh, the letters he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.

You were only David’s father,
But I had fifty sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.

Oh, never will I forget you,
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your fathers’,
For they could only see
The little helpless babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.

Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed “Don’t leave me, sir”,
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.