Some Personal Stamp Mount Observations

With the holiday break, I have been on this marathon stamp mounting session. I burned through all the Mystic 40x25 and 25x40 pre-cut mounts I had.

So, I found an old box in the garage from 2001, when I moved into my house. It is a plastic non-airtight box, and has been through hot and cold (I live near Philadelphia, so annually it will go from the 20/teens to the 90s throughout the year.)

On the bottom of that box were a bunch of 40x25 Showguard and Scott/Prinz mounts. These mounts were not in their original packaging, so they were exposed to air.

I have to say, the Scott mounts, though stuck together very lightly had no signs of wear of any kind. They were perfectly flat and still nice and black.

The Showguard mount were another story. They were all warped in some way. They either had wavy edges, or were bowed in the middle. The Showguard mounts, however, we not stuck together and separated very easily.

It's very possible I had a bad batch of mounts, or perhaps the way they were laying in the box offered the Scott mounts some modicum of more protection. Or perhaps because the Scott mounts were lightly stuck together, they stayed flat. Who knows what happened exactly, but I thought I would just pass my observations along.

When evaluating and comparing Scott mounts, the production date matters. Scott does not produce their own mounts. They have outsourced it to various manufacturers over the years, and then slap the Scott brand name on it. Over the years, they have used BOTH Showgard and Prinz as their manufacturers.

The Scott mounts that I have all say Prinz on the packaging.

Before Prinz, Scott was using Showgard. After Prinz, Scott began to use Schaubek. I'm sure there have been iterations of this beforehand as well. I don't bother keeping up any more since I don't use Scott mounts. I don't know who is their current manufacturer.

Is there a way to get Prinz or Shaubek mounts in the US without them being Scott branded? I've never seen them for sale any other way. W

When I made the leap from hinges to mounts, I did it because I saw a picture of Showguard mounts in an issue of Linn's Stamp News when I was a teenager. I went to the local stamp store and bought a Minuteman album and a bunch of mounts and immediately began remounting all my stamps.

Since then, I have never seen anything for sale other than Showguard of Scott at any local stamp store I have visited.

The current Scott mounts are manufactured by Prinz.

If this link is to be believed, apparently Showgard and Kleergard mounts are also manufactured by Prinz:

http://www.brookmanstamps.com/Brook...NTS11-12.pdf

The Prinz mounts I have are feel physically different than the Showguard mounts. Same company might make them, but they must come off of different machines or are made using different grades of chemicals. Who knows....

From my little bit of digging on web sites, it seems that Amos prices for Scott mounts on their web site seem to be the lowest prices for mounts in general.

I picked these up on clearance not too long ago at a bricks and mortar stamp store. The size seemed a bit unconventional at first (designated to fit UN commemoratives) but a second check will reveal it to be the recommended size for self adhesive US commemoratives ... it gives the stamp just a slight bit more room to accommodate the backing material that is used on the US self adhesives:

I have noticed commemoratives are a bit snug in 40x25 mounts. I'm going to have to get some of these!

apastuszak, I've experienced the exact same thing with Showgard mounts already mounted on a Liberty Album I had in storage (long story short, I just got back in to my collection).

The mounts have become wavy and brittle from heat (in Texas storage). The Liberty album yellowed considerably and the pages are "loud" from stiffing / drying out. I've removed all the stamps and moving to new albums; but using new showgard mounts as I love the look and feel of them. Will make sure to take better care of the storage in the future!

Interestingly, some of the mounts the glue had dried and the mounts would "pop" off of the pages; others are stuck very well and would rip pages off. All are fairly brittle when compared to brand new mounts.

Buy a glue stick and use that to glue the mount to the page. Glue sticks contain no water and will not damage your stamps if you get it on them, assuming you wipe it off before the glue dries.

Ok, so I finally emailed Showguard. They told me their mounts ARE NOT made by Prinz, but are made by Hawid. It seems the Showguard mounts are just Hawid Shaufix mounts rebranded for sale outside of Germany.

http://www.hawid.de/hawid_engl./schaufix.html

Does this mean Brookman stamps is wrong in advertising their stamp mounts at this link, suggesting that Scott, Prinz, Showgard and Kleergard are all the same mounts, just packaged differently?

http://www.brookmanstamps.com/Brook...NTS11-12.pdf

According to Vidiform, yes they are wrong. The email said a lot of Scott/Prinz dealers will try and claim their mounts are made by the same company as Showguard to help sell mounts.

Now, both Prinz and Hawid are German companies. Even though Vidiform buys Schaufix mounts from Hawid and brands them as Showguard, that doesn't mean that Hawid doesn't get it's mounts from Prinz, or that both Prinz and Hawid don't use the same parent supplier. I think that part of the supplier food chain will remain a mystery, though, personally, I tend to think that Hawid and Prinz make their own mounts, since I can tell a physical difference between the two when I hold them in my hand.

The Showgard and Scott/Prinz mounts are definitely different. I prefer the Scott/Prinz, and only use Showgard for those sizes I can't find in Scott/Prinz. The Showgards just seem thinner to me. I can see light through the black ones, which I can't with Scott/Prinz.