I wish I could take credit for this, but I can’t. I saw this in a recent “Hint’s from Heloise” column. I don’t remember the date.

A person wrote in to say that they used a self-adhesive stamp on an envelope, but messed up the envelope. Not wanting to throw the stamp away and unable to peel it from the envelope, they put it in the microwave oven for 6 seconds. And the stamp peeled right off!

I tried it with my microwave oven. Six seconds did nothing for me. But 15 seconds worked. The stamp peeled right off without damage. The length of time may vary depending on how powerful your microwave oven is.

I haven’t tried it on all new US self-adhesive stamps. On the few I did try, it worked like a charm. However, the sticky self adhesive was still on the back of the stamps. Soaking the stamps in water didn’t remove the adhesive. There may be other ways to remove the adhesive. At least the microwave oven got the stamp loose from the paper.