I will not hazard an opinion regarding why Brazil's stamps were issued without gum during the years noted. I lived in Brazil from 1965-1967 and clearly remember having to affix stamps to envelopes at the post office using mucilage in a little cup with a small brush whose bristles long since had surpassed their expected lifetime. It clearly took a person with more artistic/painting ability than I possess to use this gooey substance and spent brush to affix a stamp to an envelope without creating a sticky/blotchy mess surrounding the stamp, to say nothing of risking affixing the envelope to my fingers when I picked it up to carry it to the drop slot.

What strange memories remain readily accessible in memory when so much I wish I could recall is seemingly gone forever!

 
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.

re: Issues without gum

The ungummed stamps in Japan may have been due to a shortage of gum arabic most of which comes from Saharan Africa especially Sudan

Login to Like
this post