Stamp Hinges

Yesterday I bought some stamp hinges,so I thought id try them these are the kind I got

the word tasteless that is circled in purple thats a lie lol and the blue arrow pointing to peel able,what does that mean? they just dont look like you can peel them

these are them,so now I sat down to attempt this procedure,I have these 2 beautiful albums that the only way to put the stamps in it is with hinges,so I figured since it said tasteless that you lick it to moisten it,ooohh yuck was NOT good,well anyways I dont like the way it turned out,for those of you who use hinges could you drop me a few pointers PLEASE

Tina... I am very satisfied with this brand, which you can order from Subway.

Whenever I attend a show, and Subway has a booth, they usually run a special on them 5 for $13.00

Prinz is another good hinge, but you must be careful with them. They tend to curl in the package..Look for Prinz hinges that are in nice flat packages, and avoid the packages that are puffy.

Tina.....

When you apply your hinge to a stamp just use a very small spot of moisture on the short portion of the hinge. To remove a hinge be sure that it is absolutely dry or it will create a thin spot. (over night is usually enough drying time) And peel hinges off carefully......a half drop of water on the back of a hinge is enough to soak it off a stamp to avoid creating thins.

A hinge that has had a small moist spot is re-useable......you can re-use your own......never someone else's.

Also, the g man is right.....G&K are about the best on the market now.

None of them can beat Dennison (note spelling, Dennisen is a knock-off).

Unfortunately (or some of those who detest hinges, might say fortunately) they are no longer made. Old supplies can still be bought, but they are expensive.

You're not kidding -- if you can ever find them they average around $10 a package.



One of the best buys I ever made at a flea market was an old Minkus album, which had a few stamps in it. I bought it because it was much more complete than the Harris I was using, so it worked great for reference, and it was priced at only $5. When I got it home, I starged going through it, and found tucked inside the pages two unopened packages of Dennison's, dating from the '50s (orangy package).

If you don't like licking them, Tina, just moisten your fingertip for both, attaching the hinge to the stamp and attaching the stamp to the page. I usually use only a small dot of moisture, which is more than enough.

Currently, I am using "Foldo-Hinge" hinges, made by Unitrade Associates. They only run about $3/package, and work fine. They are totally tasteless and very peelable, and I recommend them.

ok lets give me a hand here I have some stamps in hard to obtain condition in mounted mint now to remove the partial hinges do I drop some droplets of water on those and then pull the hinges? Thanks

NO! For mint stamps, if the hinge is not easily peelable, don't try to remove it -- you might create a thin, which "price-wise" is far worse than hinging or hinge remnant.

Also, never add water to a mint stamp or put it in a sweatbox -- you will create a gum disturbance, which again, affects the value far more than a hinge mark or hinge remnant.

My suggestion regarding hinges on mint stamps -- learn to live with it. It's on the back anyway; I'm assuming since you don't mind having hinged stamps, then you probably wouldn't be too fussy about having a hinge remnant.

I know it sounds strange, but hinge-marks have long been tolerated and not considered damage, whereas thins and gum-disturbances (other than hinge marks) ARE considered damage.

Wow...what a great topic for discussion... Here is my method for stamps in my collection. Foreign worldwide

Used... gets hinged

Mint previously hinged... Gets hinged

Mint never hinged... gets a mount

Thank K. You saved me there. Now what is a sweatbox? I didnt know stamps could sweat. I am going to try and upgrade upgrade and find mnh. thanks for the insight. you are right it does sound strange that hinges are not considered damage

BINGO, that's my general guideline, too -- although I keep my classic era stamps in stockbooks. If the stamp is worth more than $10, it gets a mount even if it is already hinged.

At the risk of putting words in Tom's mouth, I'm pretty sure his suggestion regarding adding a drop of water to remove a hinge was in reference to a used stamp.

Another friend and I have been experimenting with using 3M removable tape. They've reformulated it slightly over the years, and now it's a much better product. We've been testing it even on mint never hinged stamps (cheap ones, of course). So far so good. Seems to be a much better solution than hinges, and the removable tape is reusable/remountable. I know, some of you may be wondering, how archival is it? Well, let's put it this way -- it's more archival than hinges and spit.

k

Where you live, it's called the "great outdoors". Greg started a nice thread on sweatboxes for stamps.
https://goscf.com/t/6119



That is because in the distant past, hinging stamps was the common and accepted practice. In those days, it was frowned upon to use tape and glue (still is frowned upon). Nowadays, people frown upon using hinges. In another decade or so, people will start frowning upon using mounts (can't tell you how many beautiful never-hinged collections I've thumbed through that became a fraction of face value because the collector didn't realize they had damaged their stamps by mounting/storing them improperly. Mounts are pretty, but they are NOT ideal for storage/presentation, and if you aren't careful, you will be very very unhappily surprised a few years down the line.

i just ordered 6 boxes of eva dry I am not letting humidity come near my stamps :)

Khj,

My question is, how do the mounts damage the stamps? I thought that was the best, safest way to store them?
Yes my "beginnerness" is showing again.

Beware...the tape is fine for mint stamps, however the tape tears
used stamps with no gum...

We may not be talking about the same product. I'm referring to Scotch 811. We've had absolutely no problems with 811, especially the new formulation (not sure when they made the changes, but I would say anything purchased this year seems fine).

If the stamp is very old and already had a thin, then I would say the 811 might take some paper fibers with it when you try to remove it, just like a gummed hinge would.

But I've been making hinges from the 811, and it is quite removable without leaving any residue. In fact, I actually use the 811 to remove residue from the back of the stamp!

Basically, I can remove/remount/remove/remount... a stamp any number of times with 811 without any problems/marks/damage. I am still in experimental phase. It will be still be awhile before I would consider whether to recommend it. I am only mentioning it because it shows promise and because I was a frequent user of 3M specialty adhesives back when I was doing research in the labs. They've got tens of thousands of different specialty adhesives for just about any application. Most people just don't know about it because much of it is not available to the general consumer/public.

This is a very good question. Even advanced collectors have made some crucial mistakes -- yeah, we're talking collections that would have fetched $100K++ at auctions reduced to under $10K RETAIL because the owner made some simple mistakes.

I was thinking about starting a thread to point out problems that I have seen in the many collections I've evaluated over the decades. Maybe later today might be a good time to start. I'll try to hilight one or two "collection disasters" each day.

Even right now, I'm thumbing through an outwardly beautiful Showgard mounted collection on fantastically colorful White Ace pages, that is 50% damaged because the owner decided he had a method better than using water to attach the mounts! To be continued in another thread...

k