Best Way To Mount/Store Stamps In An Album

I was given two Minkus albums - one is British Europe and the other is British Oceana and they range in dates from 1850 - about 1980. I'm BRAND new at collecting and would like to know what is the best way to organize them? Most are hinge mounted in the book but there are a few that are in these nifty little plastic-like sleeves that are much nicer. Which is the best way to do it? I would LOVE to see pics of how you store/organize your collection - PRETTY PLEASE? I need to get them organized and identified before I begin the monumental task of identifying all of the watermarks! :)

Hi lindseyr702,

Welcome to stamp collecting and to the group. Most stamp collectors nowadays use the plastic mounts, clear or black backed, to mount their stamps. They are made by companies like Hawid and Showgard and easily bought on-line from stamp collectors' supply outfits. Many collectors mount everything in these, mint and used stamps, and use the larger sleeves for stamped and cancelled envelopes (covers). As I collect mainly used and mint stamps that have been previously hinged (MLH or MH), I use stamp hinges for these and only mount mint stamps that have never been hinged (MNH) in the plastic mounts. This is not everyone's choice I realise, but it is how I prefer to do it.

I would leave the purchase of expensive albums until you have done some research, or received enough advice to enable you to make a choice that will suit you, and that you will not regret later. Stock books with white pages and clear film strips are a good idea to begin with, as these will enable you to arrange your stamps and write some notes below them in pencil, and also let you see the whole stamp. Be careful putting your stamps in these (film or glassine) strips as a stamp edge can easily be damaged by the strip edge. I use stamp tongs to gently lift up the strip and insert the stamp by (clean dry) hand. Believe me this is much safer. Use a second pair of tongs if you prefer.

You will need stamp catalogues of the countries you want to collect. Those a few years old are fine, and considerably cheaper than current issues. You will get lots of advice from others on here on the best catalogues to buy. Finally, consider carefully collecting only the stamps that appeal to you and that have some merit, not everything that is or has been issued. A near impossible task anyway.

Happy stamp hunting
Terry

Terry is correct that the trend seems to be toward plastic mounts. I use black split/back mounts. With a large collection, it can get expensive though. Some collecors still prefer to "lick 'em and stick 'em" with hinges.

I once saw a collection that took that phrase too literally. The used stamps were hinged and the mint stamps were licked onto the page.

Dan

I now use the plastic mounts for all stamps, even though I mostly have used stamps in my collection. I stated doing that when I saw color from stamps on one page being transferred to the back of the previous page of my album, apparently due to the small amount of friction from the pages sliding across each other just a small bit when opening the album.

Don't waste your money on plastic mounts, unless your paying over $10.00 for MNH stamps. There is no extra value given to you when you sell your collection. Use good quality hinges and that will leave more funds for stamps. The only exception would be very old stamps ,again were the catalog value justifies the use of a mount.

I agree with floortrader, Hinges for valuable MNH stamps only. And by hinge mounting stamps there is an additional benefit; they look much brighter and surface detail, such as on engraved stamps, can be seen more clearly than when viewed through a layer of plastic.

Terry

(Joan Crawford in wire hangar mode) No more glassine hinges! (/Joan Crawford)

Lately I have been purchasing stamps via Bellmore Philatelic's in home approval service (see their ad in Linn's it is a great service) and I have come across so many collections where the collector was careless in how they mounted their stamps with hinges. The stamps just end up stuck to the page (even used ones) and can be a devil and a half to try and remove for purchase. One of my side collections is socked on nose cancels and I've had to leave several beautiful cancels unclaimed because the stamps were not going to come off the page without more struggle than I felt safe for their delicate paper to handle.

The only thing worse than hinges, are the old Crystal Mounts (thank heavens they are no longer being produced)...they simply defy any easy ability to retrieve their contents.

Personally, I use stockbooks, spacing the stamps well apart on the page (6-7 small definitive stamps per row, 3-4 horizontal commems....and no overlapping layers between rows to hide stamp being fully visible). It gives me flexibility in arrangement (find a variety and it fairly easy to rearrange to fit the stamp in proper sequence) and saves the horrendous cost of mounts. Yes, you do have to be careful putting the stamps into and out of the strips, and you should keep the stockbooks vertical to ensure no impression of the strip layers end up slightly warping the stamps if they rise above the row above) but compared to the cost of all the mounts and time to prep the mounts to use them, to me stockbooks make more sense. Your milage may vary, however :)

Sample of how I have my US organized :

So much information here - thank you all very much! I do like the look of the stock mounts but I think vario pages would be the way for me to go - I don't trust myself with an open mount! :)