21st Century Alternative To Stamp Hinges??

I have acquired a load of stamps in a variety of different old albums, and I am slowly removing them and adding them to my own albums.

Yes, for valuable stamps I'm using the standard Scott or Prinz stamp mounts, which are affordable but not cheap.

But what do I do with the hundreds of beautiful, not-so-valuable stamps I've culled from my acquisition albums? Putting them in Scott-type mounts is too time-consuming and just not cost effective.

Although I've managed to acquire some highly-coveted Dennison Stamp Hinges, off ebay, the process of mounting hundreds of hinged stamps in an album is itself very time-consuming.

There's GOT to be a better way!

Right now, when I place Scott-type mounts in my albums, I do NOT
wet the adhesive on the back of the mount. Instead, I use removable (i.e., non-permanent) or "repositionable" tape adhesive. These are the same roller/runner-type adhesives used in scrap-booking (they also come as "glue dots").

Not only do these non-permanent adhesives make it easy to reposition or remove a mount from an album page without damaging the page or the mount, they are also acid-free and, therefore, archival-safe (I've been using the Ad tech brand, but other brands are also available).

So, why can't you just mount a low-value stamp directly onto an album page using this non-permanent, repositionable adhesive?

I've tried it and it seems to work nicely.

When I remove a stamp from the album page, it comes off easily. Although there is a remnant of glue on the back of the stamp, you can lightly brush it or roll it off with your index finger. And it works on both mint and used stamps.

And -- best of all -- no hinge remnants and no hinge marks!

Only the test of time will give you that answer. Will it break down and stain after 5, 10, 20 years....

Agree with MIKE33 ,time is a factor to see if the chemicals used are stable .Right now you would scare the heck out of any dealer who was thinking of buying your collection .

And...in a few years...if the adhesive material is not stable (which is highly probable) then all the album pages and stamps can be desposed of quickly.

dnile6: welcome to the web site. Myself, I can't recommend using glue dots. I bought a Latin America collection; on old album pages in folders; about 15 or so years ago. I was very frustrated when I found that the owner had used glue dots to attach many of the stamps. The glue had hardened and it was difficult to remove the dots, even by soaking in water. I ended up basically discarding the "dotted" stamps.

For stamps cataloging under $50, I use the stamp hinges produced by Subway Stamp Company in Altoona, PA, under their G & K label. One has to be cautious, but they seem to work pretty well and will mostly peel off stamps when the hinges are dry. I haven't had any damaged stamps resulting from use of G & K hinges. I use mounts for the more valuable stamps.

One of the challenges is that we basically all grew up on the concept of illustrated album pages on which we mount stamps over the matching illustrations. If we are willing to be flexible on some of these concepts, the hobby could perhaps find an easier way.

One transitional step are the Steiner pages (which I learned about here on SCF this past year!). Steiner pages have no illustrations yet have spaces for the vast majority of issued stamps. Of course, no illustrations isn't a requirement but it would cost less and allow more flexibility in the arrangement of stamps.

If we continue along this paradigm from traditional to 21st century, my opinion is that black mounts would go out of favor so as to reduce the contrast between a hinged stamp and one placed in a mount. Next would be openness to strips of clear mounts vs. individual mounts. These are much easier to fashion, cheaper, and obviate the need for hinges.

Lastly, a 21st century method of mounting collections should be electronic, maximizing flexibility for end users.

So what should this all look like?

- Same concept as Steiner pages- print as you go, or order pages printed to your requirements from a distributor.
- Flexibility on arranging stamps on the pages. If you collect perfs, shades, watermarks, etc. or want your collection to mimic Michel, Gibbons, or a different catalog, electronic albums would provide SIMPLE utilities to fashion pages the way you want
- By the same token, if one arrangement becomes obsolete for you after a time, the simple utilities would allow you to recreate the page to your new requirements
- The software would also change the arrangement of stamps based on the size of page you wish to use. You could either accept the suggested formatting, or adjust it to your requirements
- The albums would come in various configurations depending on whether you want 2-, 3-, 4-, or even 18 ring configurations
- Mounts would be strips of clear archival materials that will hold a row of stamps effectively in place over the assigned space. The mounts would come in kits, coded by size so you'd know which size you need for a particular row in your album. Sound expensive? Look what people are paying for Dennison hinges made decades ago! And mounts prevent your stamps from acquiring incremental damage from remounting.
- Alternatively, if you want to spend more a distributor could affix the mounts or strips to your requirements

The computer age gives us all the tools to have a modular, electronic way to build gorgeous stamp albums. Who will grab the opportunity and take the mounting of stamp collections into the 21st (age of IKEA) century?

I use black backed Showgard mounts for my MNH stamps and clear backed Showgard mounts for the used stamps.

Jack Kelley

RE: "I bought a Latin America collection; on old album pages in folders; about 15 or so years ago. I was very frustrated when I found that the owner had used glue dots to attach many of the stamps. The glue had hardened and it was difficult to remove the dots, even by soaking in water. I ended up basically discarding the "dotted" stamps."

Hi Steve -- Keep in mind that the glue runners I use (including the "glue dot" varieties) MUST be NONpermanent and repositionable. Chances are the glue dots used on your Latin American stamps were of the most common, permanent variety. Which means they were just about impossible to remove from your stamps.

RE: concerned comments from Mike, floortrader & bookbndrbob, about glue breaking down over time and damaging stamps:

The glue runners I use are all designated acid-fee and archival safe, which means breakdown over time and any damage to stamps would be highly unlikely.

HOWEVER, what I failed to mention was that stamps should be placed on ACID-FREE album pages.

Since I only use a spot of glue when I mount it, most of the stamp's surface will be in contact with the album page. If the album page is not acid-free and archival-safe, any stamps placed on it may suffer color change and/or other chemically-induced breakdown over time.

Of course, most commercially available album pages are not acid-free (Yes -- Even White Ace wasn't!). That said, damage to stamps on such pages that were not in Scott-type mounts could take decades -- even a century or more -- to appear, depending on the environment in which the album has been stored.

then there is always the alternative of not using illustrated pages and instead storing your collection on Lighthouse Vario stockpages. they come in an arrange of pocket sizes so easy enough to purchase the size you feel will provide the best protection for your stamps, and in the USA you can get them very cheap (on Amazon a pack of 25 2-sided pages of a given size runs around US$15 each)

I made the switch to Lighthouse pages when I returned to active collecting and can't imagine ever going back to printed pages and stamp mounts. Plus I am not enslaved in the design whims of the page manufacturer, I can include whatever I want on a page, and make room for varieties that may be listed in specialized catalogs but not in Scott.



A page from my French Polynesia collection, on a 6S Vario Page, for the 1931 Colonial Expo and the 1933 Pictorials (the original base series, the values that were released later in 1938-1940 are on the pages for those years.)

All modern day stamp hinges in the world are manufactured by one company in Germany. Prinz.

Easy! Plastic stamp album pages. (The black color)

Thank you shermae and DJCMHOH for your replies & comments. You are absolutely right: today's stamp collector shouldn't be chained to illustrated album pages (unless, of course, s/he wants to!).

I'm a little schizophrenic: I have my US stamps in a standard illustrated album, but my world-wide collection is free-form on blank pages. I have to say that I get the most joy from creating album pages for my world-wide collection.

Not only do I like to add Scott or other catalog numbers, but I note the printing used, sometimes the name of the stamp designer or artist, year issued, perf or watermark data (if relevant), and background and historical information about the subject of the stamp's design.

Blank album pages allow me to mount covers, souvenir sheets and blocks as well as individual stamps. And I have total artistic freedom over the design of my album page. Sweet!

Vario stock pages wouldn't work for me because of all the text I would typically add as well as the unusual shapes that I mount along with single stamps. But that's just me. I think Vario pages are a fine alternative to the endless sizing and cutting of Scott-type mounts, and should work for a lot of collectors.

Many people don't realize that copy paper is acid free. When I mount varieties in Vario pages, I cut 28 or 32 lb copy
paper into rectangular pieces that fit next to the stamps so I can write key identifying info.

I have given up on stamp hinges. For me, they just don't work. The stamps fall out. I collected when I was a kid, and of course used hinges because there was nothing else. I still use the same album, and the old hinges (I'M A GEEZER, sot they would be ever half a century old.)work fine and are easy to remove. Now I use mounts. Expensive, and maybe odd for stamps I soak off envelopes,, but not too bad, especially if one buys strips and cuts his own. I don' think it takes much more time than hinges, especially since I only have to do it once.

I do have a small German collection that I mount in stock book pages.

Don

Shermae, spot on!
DJCMHOH - your vario page is beautiful.

I go totally hingeless as well, no need to worry about hinges etc and easier to reorganize.