No Hinges For Me

Hello. I have a problem.

When I first started collecting in the 1960's, I don't remember how it happened, but I got this idea that you should NEVER hinge stamps.

I know this is not true. But this is what is buried in my mind. I have a huge Citation album and a US Liberty album and EVERY single stamp is put in there with Crystal Mounts (non-hinged).

As most of you know, I've recently returned to stamps and I do NOT want to use hinges. I will also say that I prefer MINT to used, cancelled stamps.

Is there an alternative to hinges?


Here's a scan of one of the few Crystal Mount packages I have left from the 1970's. Oh, what to do, what to do?????

Image Insert:

I assume that you want to keep using crystal mounts and not clear Scott mounts.

There are some small size crystal mounts on http://cgi.ebay.fr/CRYSTAL-STAMP-MO...ZE_W0QQitemZ250220504328QQihZ015QQcategoryZ702QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m122

I use the black back Scott's mounts - black because I like the way the black sets off the color of most stamps, and Scott's because that's what I started with.

IMHO, if I were you, I'd just stick to what I already had!

What has your experience with Crystal Mounts been? I have seen several collections where the glue on them yellows and stains the pages making the collection look bad, sometimes even drying out and falling off. Never saw any problem with Showgard mounts, similar to Scott's mounts Greg uses.

I started with crystal mounts but really didn't like the strip they leave on the page if you take them off. In addition to the problems that modern mentioned, crystal mounts can cause glazing of the gum on mint stamps if the humidity gets too high. Keeping some silica gel with your albums may help prevent this. I have some plate blocks of duck stamps with glazed gum which happened when I lived in Oregon.

For the last 25 years or so I have used black Scott (Prinz) or Showgard. I haven't noticed any problems with these mounts.

However I can understand if you want to keep going with the crystal mounts for a consistent look. I will look to see if I have any left over from 1970s and early 80s.

Rereading this I just realized I goofed up in my post. I use Showguard, not Scott's!

I would like to blame it on my age or the fact that I'm stressed at work right now, but that's probably not true. I'm just stupid sometimes!

The responses are awesome! But I'm snowed over right now - looking for a new job, tax returns, first time my son is in college, etc. I WILL GET back to you!! And THANK YOU!

Actually it looks like there are "new" solutions for Crystal Mounts.

I'm looking forward to being on this forum.

It's nice to know that no matter how bad your day goes, you can always come back to the Stamp Community and maybe see some stamps you've never seen before or maybe help out someone who is just starting out or maybe find out that you have somethin g that an "old-timer" is looking for.

It was during the mid-1960's, beginning about 1964 or so that the never hinged fad started to take wing. I don't know what year it was that you began collecting, but you could have just been swept up in it, especially with people like Harris expanding their market by pushing their mounts.

Prince Afa,
Does the Citation album that you have come in volumes? My grandmother had a 2 or 3 volume set for her stamps and I think it was a Citation. I just remember thinking the books were heavy and that was because they were packed with every stamp conceivable.

Donna

I some how got into the idea also of using mounts for everything. I think sometimes the mount I use for the stamp is worth more then the stamp itself, but I do like the way they look!

When it came out in the 60's, the Citation was designed to be a one volume album. It began with a 4 inch binder then went to a 5 inch binder. It was kept a one volume album by editing each new edition, adding newer stamps and dropping older ones. Annual supplements were sold as were empty binders for anyone interested in expanding their collection. But, no it didn't come in a multi-volume set as such.

The Harris Standard album was issued as a two volume set. Both used the same supplements.