"Tony Clayton" wrote in message
...

I recently purchased a very scarce mint Italian
stamp that completes a difficult mint set - at long last!
(the Victor Emmanuel II set of 1863).

The stamp has clearly been regummed,

[snip]

The question is, should I soak off the 'added' gum,
or leave it there?


Contributed by Ryan Davenport
Regummed stamps are worth no more than stamps without gum, so I always
soak any regummed issues. There's always a fear that this mystery gum
might affect the stamps. . .


Tony Clayton's response included:
Thus it can be seen that unmounted is valued about 2 to 2.5 times
more than mounted, and no gum is a fifth or less of mounted


For what it's worth, I agree with Ryan. The stamp really is not "unmounted"
because it doesn't have original gum. Sassone's drastic price cut on "no
gum" doesn't change the fact that the stamp is actually worse than "no gum"
because the gum may damage the stamp. Soaking off the gum increases the
odds that the stamp will retain at least the "fifth or less of mounted"
value.

Stan