Using Hinges On Mounts

I recently purchased a nice album of stamps mounted on pre-printed sheets. The mounts were attached to the pages by hinges… is that a common practice?

I've heard of some people doing it, but I doubt it's common practice. This may have worked will with Dennison mounts, but with modern mounts, I don't think it would really make much of a difference.

Breaking down Album pages, I have come across it 6 perhaps 10 times
in 10 years.
Generally found in fairly higgledy-piggledy pages made by amateurs.

..but appreciated, they lift off fine and can be re-used, as compared to glue back
mounts that destroy the album page.

The main benefit I can see - aside from protecting an expensive prinred album page. - is that, if the collector has used black mounts, the printed information will still be legible once the stamp has been removed.

This is an intriguing idea, especially if you have vintage hinges just gathering dust in your stamp room... I've got thousands of them. I may just give it a try.
You could easily move the mounts around. Hmmm.

This has got me thinking. Not to hijack the thread or anything like that, but - given the cost of mounts these days, has anyone had any luck soaking old album pages with mounts attached to them? With the goal of reuse of the mounts? Like most people, I suppose, I've got feeder albums and other misc. groups on old album pages. Sure would be nice to be able to re-use the mounts, after removing the stamps. I'm thinking Hawid style mounts - top loading, though I don't see why other mounts wouldn't work.



John

Never tried soaking mine, the mounts are too delicate.

What I do, do, is firstly use the long pointy tongs, slip them under the mount,
and sometimes they lift off with nary a problem.

Other times they grab like Tarzan's grip, so cut broadly around the mount,
with scissors, the gently rip off the part album page.
This is really tricky, and takes some time to fill the skill, without damaging the mount.
Leaves a short tab of page on the back, about the size of a hinge,
but makes no difference to the final look.

I now use a 2mm strip of archival double sided tape
4-5 years 10,000 or so mounts, no visable problems.

You could doubtless soak them, but it would be hard to avoid getting water between the back and front of the mount, thus creating dampness or, at best, unsightliness.

rod222 & GeoffHa,

Great info and suggestions - thank you!

John

When I collected Big Blue on the small number of higher priced mint stamps I used with mounts I hinged the mounts with Dennison hinges.

Hinges on mounts. I don't get it.

Big Blue pages and mounts are a no no imo. Pages too thin. I like to keep my options open about many things as I am not as absolutely certain in some situations as others.' Always learning, adapting and changing. This was more of an experiment for me and made sense for me to do per my personality. I also wanted the ability to remove the mounts myself or the new caretaker if a problem was found ii did not anticipate.

If the Big Blue album was stripped of the mint stamps in the mounts and then the album sold the presence of all the mounts would be a deterrent for me personally. Do you replace with used or must you then be tied to mint?

No.


Mounts, albums, and other supplies cost money. Some collectors honestly don't have the money while some are just extremely thrifty (could also be interpreted as "cheap"). Some collectors cut their hinges in half.

How to stretch your supply budget? Mounts cost more than hinges, so use a hinge and enable yourself to easily reuse the mount. Saves money in the long run, although it adds thickness to the album. Not my cup of tea, however, from a postal history slant, large art-corners for covers cost over $20/100. Naturally, I salvage them from old pages and reuse them.

The adhesive on mounts is problematic because it is not peelable, the mount is stuck to the page forever. They also stick pretty quickly, it is difficult for me at least to put them straight (I use clear which are harder than black to position straight). If there is ever a problem you basically need to scrap the whole page and unless you are printing your pages it is quite difficult/expensive to replace one page of an album. I experimented with hinges on mounts in order to alleviate this issue, I like Rod's description "higgledy-piggledy pages made by amateurs" as that was pretty much the state of my collection when I was hinging mounts. I don't understand why someone would use a Dennisson hinge for this, though, you can you cheapo "Tarzan's grip" hinges and they work fine perhaps even better than Dennisson, and peelabiliy isn't really needed for this usage model.

Somewhere on SCF somebody once suggested glue sticks to attach mounts to pages, and this is the method I use now. This method is peelable and works better than hinges for a variety of reasons among them because the entire mount is attached not just hinged part. Although is somewhat messy.

I use mounts in Big Blue, an old school edition from the 1940's with thin pages. I have never really noticed any issue with thin paper and mounts (in fact, the mounts seem to strengthen the pages) but for me the biggest issue for me with mounts in Big Blue has been 2 post binder so pages not laying flat which makes mounts harder to attach since the surface is curved. This might be why it is difficult for me to place them straight. Sometimes I take apart the whole album in order to put hinges so I can do it while pages are flat, which seems to work better although puts more wear and tear on pages every time you take them apart.

There were times I wish I had hinged my mounts when I ended up with an empty black mount looking pretty ridiculous and out of place on a Schaubek page.

Indeed. There's a reason why all of the album manufacturers spply clear mounts to their hingeless albums. I tried to reuse a Schaubek France album that a previous owner had filled with black mounts. As many of the stamps had been removed, replacing them became an unwanted puzzle.