The Stamp Hinge Experiment

Wt1 made an interesting observation recently in a related thread. That being that many of the Fold-O-Hinges being sold are of later manufacturer than the date on their package. He noted that the package date is 1955, but the address of the company on the package includes a zip code which would imply a manufacture date of 1963 or later.

It is my opinion that the contemporary hinge manufacturer(s) are not trying to improve their product. Probably no money in it, and, of course, no competition, so why bother. We stamp collecting shepple will just buy what is available.

Don

Yeah, it would cost money to research and test new hinges, plus any potential changes to the manufacturing process and supply chain would be considerations as well. I can't imagine there's a lot of money in stamp hinges, so I'm sure the current maker of hinges doesn't see a strong business case for spending money on developing new hinges. Let's say they sell a million packages of hinges a year. I don't know how accurate that is - my guess is that it's probably high. That's only about $3M at retail prices; wholesale prices are sure to be significantly less. Long story short, my outside-looking-in theory is that it's doubtful that the manufacturer sees an annual profit from hinges that's much more than mid-5 figures, if even that. In other words, not enough to warrant R&D into making a better hinge. For better or worse, we're probably stuck with the current hinges on the market.

Vacuum Man, who began this thread, has a great start on creating a more peelable hinge. Let's hope he continues his research to a production and marketing stage.

Don

Thanks Don for the encouragement.

Yes right now I am in the process of testing & tweaking what I have done so far. For me it has been an on and off again project.

Recently I have been testing the formula on live stamps in a Canada album I have been putting together. No expensive stamps. All used(no mint). Which brings to mind I haven't tested my mixture with mint stamps.

I am still using the same materials I started with. Which means I haven't had to change mixtures up to suit a new ingredient source. That for now is a future concern.

I have also been sort of searching for a source of glassine paper for testing my present mixture. From what I have seen, as in regular paper, there are lots of different types. I know that some glassine does degrade over time so some sort of archival quality would be necessary.

Right now for me it is just to see if it is possible to come up with a formula and a process to produce a peelable hinge. I am getting closer to that but it is only on a small scale at my kitchen table. To take it up to a production and marketing scale it would need a whole world of answers to questions I have not thought of yet. But if I use The ArtfulHingers figures it might be worthwhile to look into eventually producing these commercially.

It would appear that most of the stamp hinges sold under different brand names these days comes from one manufacturer in Germany PRINZ Verlag that makes and custom packages these hinges. If they were approached by many collectors complaining about hinge peelability then hopefully they could listen and make some changes to their stamp hinges.

Welcome Mike - I know you can still buy hide glue. I've heard the hide glue explanation many many times also, but it always seemed like a myth to me. It's usually framed as "environmentalists or PETA's fault which raises a big red flag with me. Stuff of your crazy uncle email chain letter sort. Does anybody have any definitive report?

Forget the hinges and mounts. Consider stock pages.

I use Dennison hinges for the less expensive stamps in my old "Big Blue". Otherwise I would never use a hinge. The more pricey stamps are in a split back mount. This is probably a mistake and top loaded mounts may be the way to go. The split backs can bend the perfs going in and over time may make an indention/mark across the center of the stamp. I have Palo album pages with top loaders and they are excellent but I sometimes find a little slippage but easily adjusted. As for mounts standing the test of time I ask you to check out the "Salm Foundation". The horrors of the old and some new mounts is too big to get into right now. Stock pages have their advantages and several on this forum are fans and will chime in. The changes and knowledge of the use of hinges,mounts paper etc. have been vast. For my Beer stamps I use black backed approval cards with a slip cover. For some countries and topics albums are just too confining and do not allow collecting outside the box. I have been collecting for 56 years.

Hunt for the perfect hinge.https://goscf.com/t/6576#52030

For my India collection I use stock pages. Scott is woefully inadequate and the Stanley Gibbons pages are either too lacking in scope or way too extensive to ever complete. They have two versions. Scott like and Gibbons like. I see on other threads you are talking about U.S. stamps. That is one specific discussion in itself as U.S. stamps and their albums are well seasoned in this country.

Pros for hinges: inexpensive, very easy to use, one size fits all (i.e. no need to buy 10 differnt kinds of hinges for various size of stamps), stamps aren't "behind glass" which can enhance their appearance (in some peoples' opinion).

Cons for hinges: can potentially damage stamps when being removed, they leave a mark on the gum of mint stamps, stamps are not as protected as when they are in a mount. Modern hinges are not very peelable - they often leave a remnant.

Pros for mounts: Nothing adheres to the stamp itself so the gum stays intact and there is no danger of a thin spot from removing a hinge. The stamps are better protected from falling off the page or getting damaged from a stray hand or careless page turning, etc. Black-backround mounts can enhance the appearance of a stamp.

Cons for mounts: Much more expensive than hinges on a per-stamp basis, multiple sizes need to be kept on hand, stamps can still be damaged when inserting or removing them from the mounts, split-back type mounts can leave a mark on the gum where the mount is split (open-top mounts don't have this issue). They are generally much more time consuming to use than hinges.

There are other pros and cons of both, but those are probably the major ones.

For most (though not all) collectors, the reason they use hinges over mounts boils down to the cost of the mounts, and to a lesser extent the hassles of cutting them and trying to keep all the right sizes on hand. Modern hinges generally sell for about $3 for a package of 1000, whereas mounts are generally 5-10 cents per mount (roughly) for regular stamps, on up to a couple dollars apiece or more for the souvenir sheet sized ones.

In general, hinges are fine for used stamps, but mounts are preferred for mint stamps, particularly ones that are never hinged. As others have said, stock pages and stockbooks are a good alternative as well.