Stamp Storage Advise Needed !

I have several old loose album pages which are partially filled with hinged stamps. Would it be best to remove the stamps and store in stock books/glassines rather than let them remain on the paper?
If I do remove it should I take the hinge off or leave it on the stamp( which is unsightly in my opinion)?
If I do take the hinge off what is the best way to do this without damaging the stamp?

Thank You for your help.

Why do you want to remove them? Are you going to put them in another album? I use stamp hinges for used stamps as they really have no or little value and I use Mystic Mounts or Scott Mounts for all my Mint stamps. If you do pull them off. Carefully lift the stamps with stamp tongs NOT TWEEZERS and gently pull the stamp towards you. Then you can pull the hings off with the tongs by pulling the hinge towards you or away from the edge of the stamp. Hope this helps you. All my Mint stamps are never hinged and put in mounts. They look nicer and it's easy to tell the Mint from the used because I use the mounts with the black background. You say the hinges are unsightly. You don't even see the hinges on a stamp unless you lift it up. Hinges have been around stamps for the past 150 years. It used to be the only way to mount stamps in an album.I have three old packages of Hinges that are priced right on the package and not a sticker. 20 cents for 1,000 hinges. I keep the packages for Nostalgic reasons.I'm thinking the packages are probably 80 to 100 years old.

Hi stamp4life

Just to add a little to TinMan's comments.

First off I use Spade Tip tongs but if very careful you can use the "needle nosed" ones. I do cataloging for a dealer and have removed hundreds of stamps from pages with the hints below.

If the stamp will not come loose from the page with a gentle tug, slip one side of the tongs under the stamp and up against the hinge and "cut" the hinge. If you have to cut the hinge it is a good sign that the hinge will not come off the stamp either. Also, if there are stamps on the back of the page those stamps will not be damaged if you cut the hinge.

Once a stamp is off the page the hinge remnant can be removed in a few ways.

The first is a gentle tugging towards you as TinMan suggests. If you had to "cut" the stamp hinge then this method will probably not work.

Another way is to gently rub the hinge attached to the stamp with the tongs. This was shown to be by an old timer. Evidently a little "heat" may loosen the gum and the hinge may release by pulling it.

If the hinge doesn't release and it is a Mint stamp leave it alone. If a Used stamp then you can soak it to remove any hinge remnants. Be forewarned. I have had instances in which the stamp was repaired with hinges and soaking the stamp gave me two or more pieces. There are a number of soaking ideas and techniques on SCF. Just search for them

Jerry B

Hi TinMan



You are rich Have you seen the selling prices for the old package of hinges? I have seen them sell for $15 or more per package.


I use blank quadrilled pages exclusively and I put all stamps in a mount, Mint and Used. It just makes the page more consistent. I have seen collections with Mint in mounts and Used with hinges and to me it looks starnge.

Jerry B

If you are not keeping the pages then removal and transfer will make the stamps look much better, that is true.

Used -saok.
Mint - if you are experienced and the stamps aren't worth much do as mentioned above with the cutting.

Old stamps hinged in may have the weakest point of the whole attachment being the stamp itself, so when you tug and pull, even gently, you tear the stamp.

Be patient. Use a sharp knife carefully or scissors carefully to cut the loose hinge part and leave the rest on the stamp for rubbing, carrful study and possible removal later.

Oh Thank You Tinman,jbCev! and Puzzler! You have given me some great advise and I will take note for sure.
I have used hinges in the past and actually enjoyed the process. But of late I prefer mounts for the stamps. (Tinman I am sure your hinge collection would grow in value as the years progress!!)
I am not sure if my current plan will work. I have been putting my loose stamps in stock cards( is that what they are called ?.These have a place to insert them in and then has a cover over all of them.)
I then intend to put the stock cards into an album according to Scott nos. etc. I know this will mean a HUGE number of cards but figured individual mounts would take longer. Are there others who do it this way?.

Here is a picture of my first step.


And, here is a photo of my mixed mass of papers so you can see why I might want to take them off. I am yet to look through them but what I find is I come across two album pages which are alike and find one more complete than the other and if I were to remove them I could have complete "sets" or follow a catalog order.. I didnt want to do anything till I had some feedback from you experts!! Thanks again!

Ann

Ann the pages are a couple different albums with the Album covers missing. One set of pages look like H.E. Harris and I don't know what the other set of pages are. The pages are numbered so you could buy some two inch notebooks and put the pages in order in the notebooks. If you have two pages alike (Border) of the same number remove the stamps on one page and transfer them to another. Just an option. If you do that. It would probably take four notebooks to house all the pages. Then if you wanted to take them all off pages later at least you would know where you stand with the stamps and have an idea about what you want in an album. I have one Harris from when I was 13 years old and I now have the American Heirloom and the Heirloom came from Mystic Stamp Company is 25 times better ($39). The Heirloom Album uses the Scott Numbering System which is standard and universal. Harris has a system of their own for numbering. Now the pages the way they are just looks like a Gooble de Gobbled mess.

Puzzler she is not likely to tear a mint stamp that has been hinged if she is careful. Often times the hinge will come off a Mint stamp and you can't even hardly tell the stamp had been hinged. The key is very careful and slow. Like I mentioned before. Used stamps have little value unless they are in the 1800's. You can buy them on ebay three pounds for $7 or 8 Dollars.

Thank You Tinman.
That is a great suggestion and I will first differentiate the pages by border design and then by page numbers and proceed from there.
I was about to say I don't think I would find any mint in here but just glanced at a page and saw one so there may be others.
Just for fun, I will post a photo later of the page borders I find and maybe someone can identify to which album they may have belonged!

Ann

Hi Ann

Any pages with a border like the top page in the picture is from a MINKUS album.

Jerry B

Jerry
I have the Minkus Albums right in front of me and none of the borders match any of my Borders in my Minkus Albums. BUT I only have the Minkus Plate Block Albums. Three Volumes. But it really doesn't matter what albums the pages are out of as long as the numbers are in order and all the pages (borders) match. That is if she chooses to put the pages in a notebook or Binder of some sort.

Chuck

Thank You Jerry & Chuck. Here are the borders I found. The last three are only about 1 or 2 pages the bulk of the lot are Minkus and the scroll kind which might be H.E Harris???

Jerry you are right about the Minkus album pages I have two kinds here in the following photograph.What kind do you have Chuck?










Whitman?

Okay, this took some time but I did sort the papers according to border and then page numbers. Now what I notice is I do have stamps pertaining to a single country all over the place...i.e. some are hinged on papers, some hinged in albums,some in mounts and some loose.
Which brings me back to the question, am I better off having them all in one place? I know this is a decision I will ultimately have to make.But what would you as a collector do? Anyone?

Hi stamp4life

I can imagine the time it took to sort everything.

When I break down pages for a dealer friend I do what you have done up till now, sorting all pages by album type and within each album type by year. Loose stamps I sort by country and put each country in its own glassine envelope.

I then pick a country from the "album bundles". If there is a country glassine, I sort the glassine stamps by image and put them in glassines. I then work on the country by year.

I put the stamps on one or more stock cards in Scott number order (over the years I have developed an easy system for doing this). When I am finished everything is on stock cards in order. One advantage of this method is that you know exactly what you have.

Everything in one place is easier in the long run, especially if you are going to put them in an album. However, if you don't want, or need, a country's stamps you can staple like album pages together and sell them as a lot, individually or by country.

Jerry B

That is an excellent method Jerry and I am going to follow it. Thank you so much for sharing. I would like to later place them on stock cards in order as you are doing and would be interested in what system you have developed!
Thanks again!
Ann