Apfelbaum’s Corner – Volume 15

For the sake of future generations of collectors, let’s take better care of the stamps we have. Let’s avoid those practices which might further diminish our already vanishing supplies of desirable stamps.

Let’s think twice before buying cheap album paper that contains strong chemicals. Let’s be more cautious in the use of tight, damaging mounts. Let’s ensure that our stamps will not suffer from dirty fingers and rough handling. In areas of excessive heat and humidity, like Florida and the Gulf Coast States, let’s provide properly air-conditioned rooms for preserving unused stamps with gum.

We cannot be overly cautious in our care of stamps, if we hope to preserve for the future the tie with history that our philatelic possessions constitute. Perhaps the time will come when in order to have any examples at all of certain perishable stamps we will have to set up a standard of values based on the extent of repair they possess. It should be possible with care to defer this time.

Let’s all exercise the needed care.