How Were Stamps Protected In The "Old" Days?

Having purchased a couple of dozen "old" collections over the past year or so, I am wondering how collectors mounted and protected mint stamps from the "old" days. Many of the stamps I've purchased are mint hinged and sometimes there are traces that they have been through two or three collections before arriving in my albums.

Many nineteenth century stamps seem to have survived MNH to the present day, an example being the 1897 Canadian Jubilee issue where big premiums are paid for MNH but stamps in this condition can still be found. How were they preserved in this condition?

When did mounts come into use? I used them in the 1970's but thought they were relatively new at that time.

I've also read about some of the early classic collectors who glued rare and classic stamps into albums.

many of the early stamps were kept in large blocks ,like blocks of 4 or large pieces so only a few got hinged during mounting. Large pieces or full sheets were kept in file folders .

American Philatelist — December 2012 has a nice article:

http://digital.ipcprintservices.com...article.html

Acanalizo
Many thanks for this article; it explains a lot.

Before plastic mounts arrived on the market the options were to paste them or hinge them on the album page or use stock books. Some of the early mounts caused severe damage to the stamps they were intended to protect. Personally I tend to be cautious about early classic MNH stamps, and prefer to buy lightly hinged mint or used stamps with clear cancels.

Terry

Reading the AP article, I never knew the never-hinged craze began in Germany. I always assumed it started in the USA in the 1950s with the rise of hingless mounts such as Crystal Mounts.

Here's another article on the subject. Although it's dated back to 2004, most of the points are still valid:

http://www.linns.com/howto/refreshe...rcourse.aspx

I have also been curious about when stamp mounts began. The earliest I have found so far are Hawid mounts that started in Germany in 1945. Anyone know earlier examples?

I think the Hawid mounts in 1945 were the first, at least according to their website:




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

Of course, for those in the US, it might be worth noting that Showgard places the date as January 1960 when the first Showgard mounts with the black background appeared in the US:

http://www.showgard.com/about_us.cfm

When I first read about the MNHOG debate/debacle in the 1960s, the common wisdom was that you could 1) count on MNHOG stamps from the classic period to be re-gummed, and 2) count on never being able to tell the difference.

OTOH, I've read lately about some things to look for:

http://johnapfelbaum.blogspot.com/2...nal-gum.html

Buying old collections in older albums is probably a fair way to protect yourself from the OG premium.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

The Apfelbaum article is an interesting piece on philatelic history and gives some solid advice. Thanks for the link ikeyPikey