Question for Pierre - the resident expert

[dutchman48]

Hi Pierre

Question for you regarding stamp albums and stamps.

If an older album with stamps has a very musty smell on the album and pages from improper storage (usually high humidity) is there any way to salvage the stamps or pages?

Thanks very much

[femmefan1946]

Musty means mould and mildew. Unless the stamps have a very high value, they should not be kept near any paper and should be destroyed as soon as possible. Burning would be my choice.

Mildew spreads rapidly.

[pierrelebel]

http://www.febreze.com/en-CA/index.aspx 

On a more serious note, musty smell most probably comes from the album pages.

I agree: if the stamps have low value, do not waste time and dispose of the album.

The alternative is to individually remove the stamps from the album and put them in a stamp stockbook.  This works best when the smell is caused by smoke as at least 90% of the smell retention came from the album pages, not the stamps themselves. By transferring the stamps to a stockbook you eliminate at least 90% of the smell.

Good Luck