After all, what were they to do with these strange stamps? Mint stamps would be difficult to mount. They would obviously have to be kept on their liner paper.
Collectors of used stamps were as baffled. Real-life experience quickly showed that these stamps were impossible to soak from paper. These days, as people are stuck at home trying to get some dang work done, many of those folks have stickers on the back of their laptops. Some of them are quite creative and clever; many of them never get removed, of course. I thought the design of my HP Spectre x was simply too lovely to add any stickers to, but on my MacBook Pro, I have the warning label commonly seen on the back of NES games—you know the one, the one that warns not to immerse the game in water.
In many ways, the roots of how we got all these stickers on our laptops comes down to a guy named Ray Stanton Avery. Avery was known as a tinkerer while a student at Ponoma College, and had a great interest in a printing press that his father, a minister, used to print sermons and church bulletins. Avery was brought in to improve the machinery used to create those labels.
One technique he used involved a cigar box with holes cut out of it to allow for the application of adhesive to the back of a sheet of paper. His second wife, apparently, as when I was researching this I found an article suggesting he was married once before —something not mentioned in prior biographies!
The self-adhesive machine invented by Avery. Google Patents. Combining various cast-off parts, including a motor from a washing machine and a saber saw, Avery managed to build a method for labels that were both self-adhesive and die-cut, making them both more efficient and easier to use than other types of labels common at the time.
In his patent filing explaining the benefit of the approach:. In order to provide labels which can readily be affixed to all kinds of surfaces, and yet be easily removed without leaving marks or otherwise damaging said surfaces, the present invention contemplates the application of a pressure sensitive adhesive surface on the labels. Such adhesive surfaces are characterized by the fact that they do not require moistening prior to their application, but are affixed to a surface by slight application of pressure, and are readily removable by peeling from engagement with the surface to which they are adhesively affixed.
The name that Avery chose for his company that created this obviously quite important line of labels? Kum Kleen Products. He was an inventor, not a branding expert! Did they not have any self-awareness in the s? Fortunately, Avery had the good sense to change the name to Avery Adhesives, a firm that revolutionized labeling over the next 50 years, gaining use in things as varied as stickers, postage stamps, product labels, and numerous other things. By being able to apply pressure to affix a label rather than by moistening the surface as one might do with a vintage stamp, it made the adhesives easier to manage and more foolproof.
But you probably know the Avery name because of the fact that the company moved into office-supply products, mostly adhesives, starting in the s. And what long-term effect would this self-adhesive gum have on the stamps' condition?
Collectors of used stamps were as baffled. Real-life experience quickly showed that these stamps were impossible to soak from paper. In September , Bhutan issued a set printed by offset lithography a transfer process on cloth showing Buddhist prayer banners Scott E. Gibraltar was next in with a set showing mailboxes Scott a , closely followed by the first self-adhesive issue from the United States, then Norfolk Island with a set of four for the Universal Postal Union The U.
The stamp is shown in Figure 3. The stamp became severely discolored after a short time because of the instability of the adhesive. Used examples could not be soaked off paper because the adhesive did not include a water-soluble layer as most U. This fiasco of a stamp issue delayed the next U.
Another U. This stamp is shown in Figure 4. Another experimental issue was released the following year picturing a stylized flag Scott , a so-called plastic stamp. It was available to the public only for a period of six months through 22 First National Bank automatic-teller machines in Seattle. Another experimental plastic stamp followed, as did an experimental stamp picturing the Liberty Torch A. In , three Eagle and Shield self-sticks were issued nationwide, but the public did not buy them because they sold for a premium above face value.
After the premium was removed in late the stamps began to sell in , as did other new self-sticks issued in By the U. Thirty-one years after they began, self-sticks had revolutionized the U. During the test-and-retest period in the United States, self-adhesives continued to take hold throughout the world. In Montserrat issued its first self-adhesives Scott a. In it was the Grenadines Scott , Barbuda and Barbados Because of all these issues, the USPS gave up on self-adhesives for 15 years.
Then in , they decided to try again. This time they used an acrylic-based adhesive and produced stamp convertible booklets and strips of 18 for affixing machines. However, the stamps themselves were only distributed to 15 cities for a day test period. Customers in those cities were then given a questionnaire asking how they liked the stamps. This issued was also deemed a failure. Not ready to give up, the USPS tried again the following year.
This time they printed the stamps on plastic instead of paper and were issued in sheets the same size and thickness of paper currency for sale in select ATMs in Seattle. There was no additional premium added to these stamps and they were considered a success. The USPS then expanded the program, but the next stamps would be printed on paper because of complaints they had received from paper recyclers.
Most U. The first U. The expense of manufacturing self-adhesives versus lick-and-stick stamps has flip-flopped in the intervening years, though, according to the Postal Service, which claims that the base cost of printing stamps with moisture-activated adhesive is now percent greater than self-adhesives. That means the cost of creating a lick-and-stick stamp is more than double that of a self-adhesive. The problem, according to the USPS, is that "water activated paper is only available through international channels," adding to the production cost and slowing down production as stamp printers wait for the special imported paper to arrive.
Mailers today are accustomed to self-adhesive stamps, but collector reaction has ranged from begrudging acceptance to outright rejection. Collectors were further dismayed by a change in USPS policy that abandoned the requirement imposed on stamp manufacturers that the stamps be soakable; that is, that a used stamp can be soaked free of envelope paper in water without damaging the stamp.
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