When Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp, an integral part of his design was a “wash of mucilage applied to the back, which, when moistened would allow the stamp to adhere to paper.” In the very early years of philately, hobbyists primarily collected used stamps. After all, the reasoning went, why spend good money when stamps off envelopes were so plentiful. And to spend money on stamps in the late 1860s seemed the height of folly. After all, what could they ever be worth?
Led by the Belgian stamp dealer Jean-Baptiste Moens, collectors began buying unused stamps in the 1870s and 1880s. True, they didn’t display the purpose for which stamps were invented (that is, postal use), but the collectors didn’t have disfiguring cancellations to worry about. So, they pasted the unused stamps into their albums, or if they received stamps with gum, they just licked them down. This seems shocking to modern-day collectors, but we must all be aware that gum was a meaningless annoyance until the turn of the century. And the hinge, which now seems barbaric to many, wasn’t even used by most collectors. Indeed, in stamp papers of the 1890s one can leaf through an entire year’s run without encountering any references to gum, except for methods of removing it. Until 1920, controversy raged over whether to collect unused stamps with original gum at all.
“Is it original gum?” may be the most common question in philately today, and it has taken on a much greater significance than ever before. Due to the extreme rise in price of “never hinged” stamps (that is, stamps showing their gum in the quality in which they were issued, great emphasis has been placed on ascertaining the original gum, as this is the only way one can be sure that the stamp was never hinged and that it has not been regummed to resemble a higher-priced commodity.
Determining whether a stamp has original gum is not an easy matter. Many stamps are found regummed nowadays, whereas fifty years ago only comparatively expensive stamps were regummed. Today a regummer, armed with his pail and mucilage, can buy hinged stamps, wash off the gum, and regum them. And many stamps in the $20 to $50 range are now being regummed. So collectors must learn how to distinguish whether the stamp they are buying has its original gum.