The Philatelic Disaster of Self-Adhesive Stamps

At the age of ten, I could name more than one hundred countries. I learned them from stamp collecting. Lately you might have noticed that all new stamps are stickers, because in 2020 the USPS officially announced they would no longer be issuing the "lickable" version of stamps. Collectors were devastated.

Aside from the different aesthetics, these new stamps are no longer water soluble, meaning you can't soak an envelope in water and remove the stamp the way we once did. It's hard to imagine stamp collecting will survive this new shift. Collecting stickers on paper just doesn't feel right. There could be hope for old school philatelists, though, because self-adhesive sticker stamps are more expensive to produce. Not to mention Revivalism is still hot. People buy vinyl music and Kodak is making physical film again. The past, in other words, is making a comeback. Maybe stamp collecting will too.