Stamp Preservation Problem

[Emoticon]

Hello,

I'm a currency and coin collector, never stamps, so I know very little about them beyond that the one with the upside down airplane is worth a lot , and I've run into a pretty large stamp problem. My father recently gave me a stamp book that was my great-great grandfather's when he was a child. There are hundreds of them many of them are from the 1800's looking at some of them that are postmarked that are from all around the world. My dad never did anything with them what-so-ever they and sat in this book for over 100 years. The problem is the book is something akin to a dollar store composition wide ruled notebook that the stamps have been pasted or affixed to somehow. The paper they are affixed to is all yellowed and is obviously not acid free, and the book as a whole is battered and barely holding together. One one hand I'm thinking that I should try to remove them from the book and put them into a proper preservation holders or whatever, on the other hand I don't want to lose the context of the book itself, as my great great grandfather had written things about them on the pages. What do you think the best course of action to proceed with this to be able to preserve them as I may sell some, but in general I plan on keeping most of them to hand down as they've come to me. Also what is the best book for identifying and getting a rough value of these stamps is there a book that covers both US and International stamps back that far?

Thanks for the help!

 

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[Mackaydon]

Welcome to Treasure Net !!
Suggestions: Go to your local library and ask for Scott's Standard Postage Stamp Catalog Vol 1. This catalog includes US stamps and will get you started. I'd also seek out a local stamp club and ask for their advise. If there is no local stamp club, you may wish to contact the local Boy Scout troop and ask for the Stamp Collector Merit Badge teacher. As a general rule (at least in my experience) US and British stamps have the best value; Germany has the lowest value.
Don.....

 

[abbynormal]

How are your stamps mounted in the book? Are they attached with little glassine pieces? if so, those are called "hinges" and are meant to be easily removable. A picture might help. I've salvaged a lot of stamps in my time and have been collecting since I was 8 years old.

 

[A.J. Griffin 00]

Don't remove them from the book because it will lessen the value. Try repairing the book for what it's worth but if the book is literally something you would find in a dump and is taking away the value from the stamps themselves, remove CAREFULLY and save the book just in case.