Great Britain Machins - Can They Be Soaked?

Does anyone know if the Machins can be soaked off of paper? Or are they self adhesive like the USA self adhesives. I have a large amount of them that are on paper and would like to find out before I try and soak them off the paper.

It really depends on the time-period in which they were issued. You're safe with earlier material before the self-adhesive years.

The self-adhesive Machins were produced so they would not come off and are notoriously difficult to soak off. Still, it was possible to get them off paper. They started adding elliptical slits that would tear when the stamp was lifted off paper. Those, you better leave on paper.

Those with ordinary gum can be soaked. But keep in mind soaking can affect the coating and in some cases the phosphor tagging.

As to those Machins with the slits that are supposed to self-destruct the stamp, I have had great success removing them.

I use electrical contact cleaner. It's a spray can from the electrical department in home stores. Spray a little on the backside and the paper it's on turns into "slick" paper like the original backing, and the stamp peels away.

Just be slow and careful when you get to the slits. I also removed some Russia 2021-ish S/A from paper which had slits in them. Worked great.

After removing stamp, let the cleaner evaporate for a few seconds, then dust the back with baby powder to neutralize the adhesive.

Give it a try--works great for US S/A stamps too :-}

Josh

The earlier adhesive ones soak, I would agree entirely with NSK, Why bother trying to remove the self adhesives whenyou then have to alter themwith talcum powder. you can if you wish. A thing that might mean you want to sweat some of the stamps off is to see identify which of the values had stars or letters printed on the back then save those to be soaked on damp kitchen towel so as to save the water soluble marking on the back. I have used specimens of most of those that have the printed emblem on the back. The gibbons catalogue doesn't list thse as in used condition, they must assume everyone soaks all stamps

After a 30 plus year layoff from collecting, I have in the last 3 months returned to my Machin collection. I have read other posts on this forum discussing how to soak stamps off paper, etc. Many concerns about chemicals in the water, length of time soaking, water temperature, etc... All very helpful.

I have decided to to do the following with what "I believe" has been good success. I trim heavy cancelllations away from the stamp(s). I use distilled water, cool to room temperature, time the first soak at 5 minutes, then remove as the stamps start to lift. I give the stamps a light rub on the back to remove gum residue, doing it very gently. Stamps on colored paper go in seperately with the same procedure.

So far I have things have been satisfactory.

I do remember as a young boy when my mother started me out on collecting Great Britain stamps. She was a British War Bride who got lots of mail from the UK. She would "steam" the stamps off the envelopes over a boiling tea kettle just as her father had done back in the day. I do not use this method!