The Cost Of Stamp Hinges , Time To Look Again.

It will take someone with money who is concerned for the hobby and can take a loss to try and they may fail like others have. My giess is there is something between the adhesive and the hinge that makes it peelable.

FYI, Brookman catalog I got just a few days ago lists original dennison hinges at $10 a pack. Anyone enterprising enough may be able to make a tidy profit turning those over...

I saw that, too. Unfortunately, they are not available to purchase, either at their online store or eBay store. I did not, however, try an order by snail mail, as I am pretty sure what the response would be... I did not bother to call them.

John

I was wondering if anyone that read my post above would notice that all of the tested hinges except for a Swedish brand I have never heard of are acidic (low PH). We are always discussing the dangers of acidity when it comes to album pages and other paper products (glassine is paper) and yet we attach these hinges to our stamps without a second thought.

I do not recall ever seeing hinge shaed tone marks on the backs of stamps (except in cases where some fool used tape).

I have albums here next to me where I hinged stamps into them in 1966 ,while in high school and there is no staining or marks on the album page or on the stamps , so over 50 years later no problem .

Neither have I ever seen any issues from hinges and yet they test as acidic.

I have seen problems with those early, thick paper hinges. They are well over 100 years old - maybe 19th Century. The paper is thick, like stamp paper - it might even be sheet selvage being used as hinges. It is like they are welded to the stamp - these things inspired 'peelable'. I have found that they can easily tone, affecting the stamp.

I agree with the others, though, that generally hinges don't discolor greatly. I DO see the older 'glassine' ones change color with age, very similar to how glassine 'dries' (gets brittle) and gets a brown tint over decades.

I purchased a collection at auction that was all MH and a large percentage of the stamps had a large brown oil-like spot exactly where they were hinged. All that I could think of was that perhaps the mounter was a smoker or was drinking something while hinging? The hinges popped right off but there was no repairing the damage. Ruined some great BC sets.

In over 60 years of collecting stamps, I've seen all sorts of stains on stamps and on album pages. Some were caused by the glue from adhesive tape. A lot of us may have used Scotch Tape for hinges when we were beginning collectors. What a disaster that turned out to be. Some stains are caused by the paper used in the stamp album itself which turns brown over time. Some by the ink of stamps on facing pages (one reason to use interleaving). Some stains are from dirty fingers or perhaps food or drink. Coffee stains are not uncommon on album pages and I'd guess they may sometimes get onto stamps, as well. But I've never seen a stamp hinge stain a stamp.

I have seen a lot of hinge damage but not because the adhesive stained the stamp, but because the adhesive is so aggressive it doesn't allow the hinge to be removed easily or at all. But I can't recall any brand of hinges staining stamps either from acidic paper or from the adhesive. Logically, you'd think some hinges would be made out of such cheap material that they'd stain stamps, but I've never seen that.

This is different from hinge marks or hinge remnants left on the back of stamps. Those are caused in the first case by the moisture used to attach the hinge to the stamp, and in the second by overly aggressive glue on the hinge. But that's a different kind of damage and is not related to acidic hinge paper or adhesive. Hinges can certainly damage stamps, but not by staining them. Maybe the lack of acidic damage is because so little of the hinge actually touches the stamp and that little is buffered by the small amount of moisture we add to the hinge . . . ? But I'm not sure.

So, generally, among all the worries we have about protecting our stamps, I'd put acidic hinges pretty low on my list of worries. Well below overly-aggressive adhesive which makes a lot of hinges a bad choice.

Here is the answer to your hinge problems, NOT:

"Do-It-Yourself Peelable Hinges" by Richard E. Goodman, American Philatelist August 2011

Yes, it is a real article. I wonder what his hinged stamps look like today.

was the manufacturer of Dennison hinges ever located in watertown NY? where they a rubber stamp company?

I find the quality of hinges to be a bigger problem than price. About half the hinges in a packet are useless.
With a lot of stamps now self adhesive,I don't try and take them off paper.
I have started using double sided tape instead of hinges.

was this company a part of the Dennison hinges company?

Last year after my old Dennison hinges finally ran out I bought a pack of Supersafe for about $4. Hated them, weren't folded right so couldn't tell which side to moisten, many were wrinkled, half of them ended up in the garbage. Thankfully I recently ran out of them and bought a pack Prinz, same price. Have only used a few but can tell already 100% better than the Supersafe.