Question opening envelopes

[Rhonda in MT]

I have a rather eccentric customer. He and his wife gather information and small gift items and send them to our senator, Max Baucus. Max, of course, writes back. My customer thinks these letters will be of great historic value some day. He is not interested in the monetary value. So far I have framed a few of them with photos of Max. He is also a big Jimmy Carter fan so I've frame that too.

Now he has 2 new letters that he has not opened and want to know for historical purposes the best way to open the envelopes. I've seen lots of TV shows where someone steams open a letter, but does that actually work?

By the way, I am not totally convinced these are of great value but I don't think it's up to me to burst his bubble. He gets a lot of satisfaction from the correspondence.

 

[tandlh]

I can't speak to historical value, but I can offer two ways to open the letters. Steaming will work on traditional envelopes that are moistened to activate. But, I doubt it works with the newer sticky envelopes. Another method that works well is to thinly slice the end of the envelope and slide the letter out the short end.

Good thing we don't have to determine value for someone else. If it's valuable to them that's good enough.

Ted

 

[cjmst3k]

If it's a newer sticky-adhesive envelope, then adhesive release (or "Undo") should work to temporarily release the adhesive. If it's more of that stamp-type-glue, then moisture of some sort. ...but I don't know about how either of those two methods might affect the "value" these may have.

 

[Framar]

I would be wary of using a solvent to open an envelope because it might dissolve what is written in the letter (be it printed, signed, whatever).

Maybe call a history museum and get their take on it?

Or a stamp collector? They save those "first day covers" (which are total scams, BTW) but those are never actually sealed or mailed.

Call a museum.