Sets Of 4

I have a shoe box full of sets of 4 stamps with 5 digit numbers in clear plastic envelopes. I am not sure of the best way to keep them. Right now I am concerned as they are vertical in the shoe box and are getting a slight curl. What is the best way to store them and are there any albums that would be perfect to store these? Should I remove them from the clear plastic envelopes and replace them with something better?

Thanks!
Jen

sounds like your referring to whats called a "plate block" It's the corner of a pane of stamps that shows the printing plate number. Keep in the plastic holders and keep them dry. Can you show any of them? That would help greatly to see what you are talking about exactly.

As you can see by the second photo they are starting to curl.

Yikes! That second photo looks as if the plate blocks were mounted in old Crystal Mounts. Those mounts haven't been made in decades, but they are still housing many collections and they are notorious for curling, discoloring and ruining stamps in the process.

There are a number of alternative storage solutions for plate blocks both in and out of the stamp collecting community. If you opt for items specifically geared for stamps (i.e. Vario pages, etc.), the prices can get a bit high, depending on the number of plate blocks you have to store.

Personally, I am an advocate for these Art Profolio storage systems. They can be had in sizes from 4x6 all the way up to poster size, they are archival safe and I use them to store many philatelic items, including plate blocks. Depending on your location, you can find these readily available at most larger craft stores. In fact, if you shop on-line coupons for stores such as AC Moore, Michael's or Hobby Lobby, you can usually get 40% or 50% off coupons making these items very attractively priced.

http://www.artprofolio.com/Art_profolio.htm

The "plastic holders" look to be old Crystal Mounts.
They will continue to shrink and curl the stamps.
Get them out and put them into a stockbook (something like this: http://www.subwaystamp.com/Crystal-...products/28/
However, as so many were printed, so many were saved, and demand for them is pretty thin, virtually all plate blocks from this period are not worth much more than the face value of the stamps.
Sorry about that.

I vote for the vario pages as I've had no problem with them

In any event get them out of the crystal holders. I've several, what used-to-be Mint, Full Gum, Never Hinged stamps from an older collection that were ruined from those mounts.

I too vote for the appropriately sized Vario pages; they are not that expensive unless you have a mountain of plate blocks; but I think you should do something soon. Get the pages into a three ring binder (album) with some pressure on the pages.

Sorry it took so long to get back...I took the stamps out of the holders. Unfortunately even my un-trained eye can see that many are in bad shape.

When I first opened the box I assumed that there would be perhaps one or two of the same stamps but for some reason My father in law accumulated a dozen or so of the same stamps. In the 150 there are maybe 20-25 different stamps.

I will check out the Vario pages. From a quick search it looks like these pages would be a great solution to more then just this problem.

Thanks!!
Jen