To Hinge Or Not To Hinge That Is The Question

I've found the peelability of modern hinges to be adequate on used stamps for the most part. If one is very sparing with the moisture, they'll leave with little or even no trace. This is key - fully moistening the entire hinge will make it difficult to remove without soaking. Moisten a small part of it (barely) and the results are, in my opinion, close to what one would achieve with Dennison hinges. The hard part is in not overdoing it, since just a little bit too much will result in making them hard to remove. Therefore I do personally recommend using Dennison or Fold-o-Hinge, etc on mint stamps, since there seems to be more margin for error when it comes to the amount of moisture used while still remaining peelable. Your mileage may vary and there is certainly nothing wrong with using Dennison hinges for every stamp if you don't mind paying for them.

It's been discussed difference cultures for different countries in this thread, so I will offer the 'verdict of the Norwegian jury'. In Norway hinged or never hinged makes a huge difference - and especially for classic material. The majority of the collectors here are using hingeless albums (with mounts) or simply stockbooks... the Vikings are not quite as rough as they once were!

If I had a do-over, I'd probably put DDR in a stockbook. It's the only part of the German area that I would typically buy MNH (simply because that's the condition they're the easiest to find in) and I didn't think that far ahead when I started on it. I'm not planning on re-purchasing the same stamps again, however (I'm probably over 60% complete), so I'll likely just continue hinging them. It does kind of pain me to put a hinge on an NH stamp, even a common one, but it doesn't make economic sense to purchase mounts for them all.

Artful, I am curious about the economics of the stamp mounts. Are you hinging your stamps onto pages that have individual images/frames for each stamp, or are you mounting them to custom or blank pages?

If custom or blank pages, how much savings would there be to putting long strips of mounts that would hold many stamps vs. mounting each one in it's own mount?

I'm using Steiner pages, which have individual frames. I do use mounts for some stamps and I generally buy packs of the strips, which I then cut to size. Putting a row of them together in the same strip probably wouldn't save a lot of space.

In addition to the expense, there's also a time factor involved, plus the hassles of having to buy many different sizes. The DDR issued somewhere around 3100 stamps during its existence (not counting various Russian occupation stamps), of various sizes including probably 100+ souvenir sheets (I don't have a count on the sheets, but there are a lot of them). I'd likely have to have at least a couple dozen different sizes to properly mount them all, plus the time involved with cutting them, etc. A hingless album would have been nice, but those things are ungodly expensive as well, which is why I think a nice Lighthouse stockbook would probably have been the best way to go.

I generally collect postally used stamps so this usually isn't an issue for me, but finding complete sets of postally used DDR isn't nearly as easy as finding MNH year sets and the like. I do collect some older parts of the German area in mint (hinged) condition as there are many issues where the (genuinely) used items are much more expensive. For most of those, I don't have an issue with re-hinging them or using the occasional mount as the situation warrants. I don't have a problem with the few-cents cost of a mount for a more expensive stamp, I just balk at having to lay out real money to buy them to protect common stamps that are probably worth less than the mounts themselves.

In my Scott Int album up to 1950 I mount all them, a mount cost around 6 cents per stamps , so even if I reach 50k stamps it will have cost me $ 300 , not too bad over a period of 30 or 40 years because when I purchase albums or lots to fill empty spaces, I also replace the one in the album with a better one if I find one, modern mount often damages stamps unless you soak, and it's not something I like to do.

For the 1950 + Mint CTO and cancel, I use mounts as I don't care about those stamps, they are there because they come with albums I purchased for my 1840-1950, I just put them on Steiner pages for fun. Now if I fall on a Mint souvenir sheet or engraved stamps, that will be mount.

I'm not collecting to invest, and I'm not a profit seller ( I just sell my duplicates to purhase new ones )

Art,




That's a very accurate description of German collectors! I once received a very nice MNH stamp from a German collector for free with a note of apology because "that's all he had." The problem? There was a very minor natural inclusion on the gum a little bigger than a freckle.

If you want to make a German collector apoplectic, buy a rare stamp and comment how nice that will look hinged in your collection.

Dan

I'm a mixed bag.

I have a collection of very common used U.S. on Steiner pages. Unless I happen to see something of value (one or two regular issues and A VERY FEW back of the book), I hinge. I also hinge most (but not all) of the used portion of my Haitian collection.

I also started a while back moving some bulk worldwide stuff to Steiner pages, on an occasional and as needed basis. Those are mostly hinged.

I do like mounts a lot, though, and use those for certain collections, though my mint Israel, mint Vatican, and soon Mint Haiti go in hingeless albums. I've pondered a mint US collection in Mystic's hingeless but I'm not there yet.

My topical collections tend to be on custom pages or vario pages.

I have too many collections.

Avro,

It's your collection and you can do with your stamps what you want. If you have an eye for future value, hinging will lessen the value somewhat, although as was previously mentioned, for newer issues it's not that big of a deal.

I personally prefer black split-back mounts for everything including the most common used stamps. It's just a matter of preference. If you check some of the threads here you will see some beautiful pages that have hinged stamps.

I personally like the look of a black mount. It makes it easier to remove the stamp to examine or replace too. Some modern hinges can be a bear to remove without skinning the stamp or album page.

I always remove hinges from stamps I get. An artfully applied hinge can hide a tear or thin.

It also depends on your collecting interests. I collect Soviet Occupied Germany in detail. Some variations can only be determined by the type of gum. Obviously MNH is preferred in this case.

It isn't economical to use mounts in every instance as I do. I'm not concerned with the market value or resale value of my collection. I treat my stamp collection like I treat the artwork I have purchased. I've spent much more to have artwork professionally mounted than I paid for the art itself or could ever hope to make reselling. They're my collections for my enjoyment so I display them in a way that pleases me.

As long as you enjoy your collection, do whatever like and can afford.

Dan

Since I mix hinged and mounted stamps in the same album (sometimes on the same page), I use clear mounts when I do use mounts. This also makes it less necessary to purchase precisely the correct size of mount for every stamp as I can use a slightly larger mount if necessary and it will still look good. Any stamp that cost me more than a few dollars is going in a mount, regardless of the condition its in, just for the added security and protection. Hinged stamps can and sometimes do come loose and fall off, and there's a higher risk of damaging them when turning the pages and handling the albums, etc. But, for the vast majority of stamps that I hinge, there's 1000 more where that came from, possibly even in my own pile of duplicates!

I do like the way that stamps look in black mounts, but I don't like the look of black mounts against a white(ish) page. To me, the black squares just seem to stick out like a sore thumb all over the page, but that's just my personal preference.

The collectors that are zombies with the heads in the sand are those who cannot accept that most newer collectors believe that " A stamp that has seen a hinge will not be in their collection ". It has nothing to do with the value being lower or the sellability it has to do with their method of collecting,

Pagoda

This is reflected in the normal 5-10x (or more) premium for NH in the areas I collect. I'd probably collect NH myself if the premium were only 10 or 20%, but when it's a sizable multiple, forget about it.

As I'm not all that concerned with resale value, this is actually a development I'm rather happy with; I'd rather have a more complete collection of hinged stamps than empty page after empty page of NH. This is true particularly since I mount my stamps face up so I can see the front of the stamp. I sometimes get the idea that undisturbed gum is so important that some collectors must mount all their stamps face down/gum side up. I say that tongue in cheek, of course, but I sometimes have to wonder. If a pristine back makes a stamp 10x more valuable, shouldn't one mount it with the backside facing up since that's where 90% of the value is? Really, who would even care what the front looks like at that point if it's only 10% of the value?

Everyone can collect in their own fashion of course and there's nothing wrong with collecting however one chooses. Personally I just choose not to spend a sizable multiple for something I'm probably only ever going to see once. I'd rather enjoy more fronts of stamps than hold out for a few perfect backs.

It's on the front of the stamps the real value is, not in the back. You have so many beautiful and different designs of stamps, I don't know why peoples focus so much on their back, The value is in the history they present. Not their CV. A real collector understands that. It's not all about money in the world.

Newer collectors as only few hundred $$ of stamps hoping to sell them thousands in few years. Read this; it won't happen, in 10 years half of the stamp collectors will disappear and the stamps will make a huge drop in value as it will be too much available

I have always put MNH stamps in a stock book, or have used mounts in albums or hingeless albums.

For awhile I thought it didn't really matter much whether a used stamp was hinged or mounted. However, I mounted hi-value used stamps in my album. Then I realized in my used collection albums I had a mix of hinged and mounted stamps. That look didn't particularly appeal to me, so I have started mounting all my stamps in albums.

I think visually the albums just look better, and the mounts offer the stamps more protection.

I do my best to never hinge even previously-hinged stamps.

I think as many people remember how their grandparents introduced them to philately, I remember my introduction to hating hinges: I one day opened up my World Traveler stamp album as a child, and quickly was mortified to see that some of my hinged stamps became "folded" when they got caught between pages.

In fact, it was that perfectionism that made me keep my stamps in glassine envelopes from then on. I never wanted to use hinges again.

Then I grew up, discovered stockbooks, and worked with those for a while. Now I mount everything I can. Yes, it is very expensive, but the black-back of the mounts really makes my stamps pop and the albums just look so nice.

I get a lot out of my "procedure" when I am mounting stamps. Measure the square on the album page, figure out the necessary mount strip size for the stamp, measure out the length I need to cut, slice, gingerly place the stamp between the folds, moisten the back, precisely place the mount into the album.

It makes every stamp feel like an achievement. The process lets me study the stamp as I handle it, viewing it from all angles. It slows me down, taking stamps one at a time rather than be overwhelmed by the thousands I have stored in a box waiting to be organized.

I love my mounts!