Mint Never Hinged And The Can Of Worms

Should a stamp issued with no gum have a premium for being mint never hinged? Hinges can be soaked off.

Is a shelf adhesive stamp still considered mint never hinged if the backing is hinged? The stamp is not hinged just the backing.

Must a shelf adhesive stamp remain on the original backing to be considered mint never hinged?

Nice worms. They're crawling everywhere. ;)

Actually, I have no answers, but these are good questions. Self-adhesives are my nemesis. I finally decided I don't care what the back is like (I've tried soaking them and had very bad experiences with them sticking to themselves and other stamps and generally not ever becoming not sticky; I dislike how thick they are if I leave the backing) and just stuck them straight in my album. (I know this is bad, but I got so fed up with the stupidity of it all that I just bit the bullet and did it.) I'm under no illusions that they'll ever be worth anything, and I'm not planning to sell. I just want the stamp. But for those who DO care... I don't know. I don't know how you would hinge a self-adhesive without removing the gum unless you left the backing on (it would stick to the album page the moment you closed your album). And without its gum is it really mint?

This is why self-adhesives cause such problems for collectors, and it's really a terrible dilemma.

Edited to fix massive redundancy.

At least with the can of worms, I can go fishing...

Just my personal opinion here, but I think the NH term shouldn't really apply to self adhesives. Who in their right mind would try to hinge an unused s/a when it's off the backing paper? If it's still on the backing paper, well, I don't know if there's an official answer, but I would guess that there are collectors who would shun one with a hinge mark, thus meaning there would be a small premium for NH. I can't imagine there would be much of one in the real world since the value of most regularly-issued s/a is closely tied to its face value in postage, and there are plenty of them to go around.

The MNH acronym generally implies a stamp as it was originally received from the post office. While some still use this for SA stamps I think over time another acronym to describe PO fresh SA stamps.

SA stamps should retain their original backing paper, and the backing paper should not be hinged or otherwise altered. I doubt a hinge would drastically impact the value, but I also didn't think all those baseball cards I stuck in the spokes of my bicycle years ago would have any value.

I mount all of my PSA stamps on my outbound mail.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

So if it's part of a sheet and one does not wish to mount the whole sheet (or booklet), does one cut around the little die-cut "perforations"? Or wait until one has used the surrounding stamps on mail and then cut it out? It just seems like a lot of work for a stamp that will likely never be worth more than face value.

Edit: I quit collecting modern because its such a hassle.

Theres another thread going on about self adhesive stamps, and in it someone used the description "mint never peeled". I thought it was both funny and accurate. Maybe MNP will become the new standard for SA's.

The problem with a MNP stamp is that there is no way of knowing whether it has actually been peeled and then very carefully put back on its backing.

I am also happy I don't collect modern stamps.

So now we have MSDLLIHBPBMIH (Mint Sure Doesn't Look Like It Has Been Peeled But Maybe It Has) stamps? That'll be great in the stamp catalogs.

I'd like to call stamp accessories and material companies to invent a new set of mounts made of transparent backing paper so I can properly place my MNH peeled SDA into a protected sleeve

Because of the hassle with SA I cut my U.S. collection off at Scott 4600 or 2012 and my Canadian collection off at Scott 3000
I collect Mint U.S. but don't concern myself with the Mint SA stamps. Of course all my Souvenir sheets are Mint.

Gilles

Don't give Herr Leuchterm ideas! I still haven't quite recovered from the Lighthouse Champagne cap album ("secure storage ... protecting the caps from scratches").

Geoff

I doubt that Herr Leuchterm would get the message unless it was addressed to Herr Leuchtturm.