Supersafe Hinges Comments

I had recently purchased a couple of packages of Supersafe hinges. I had not used hinges in a long long time as I had been focusing on Mint stamps. For my used collection, I have started using hinges,

My initial reaction was I did not like them and did not think there would peel off easy since I had to transfer some (misidentified so in wrong location) and seemed hard to remove without leaving additional hinge marks on the backs.

Fast forward a month and now my complaint is that pop off too easily. I have been inventorying them and need to life to read my penciled in catalog number and they can pop off.

So, my conclusion is once you let them set for a few weeks they do remove easily (hinge remains on page though) but the downside I really cannot touch them. They do seem reusable at time - meaning I can moisten the hinge stuck to the page and reattach. Removing the hinge from the page is not as easy without removing some of the sheet.

All stamp hinges in the world today are manufactured by one company Prinz located in Germany. They are then repackaged by different companies and rebranded.

As you say no need to remove hinge from the album page. It's all in the correct amount of moisture & technique for the very difficult modern hinge.

The answer is to use Dennison hinges of yesteryear. Pricey and they will not be available forever.

The "about me" in your profile needs to be corrected. "$" to "#"

I love Dennison's Hinges and have been known to pay top dollar for them.. They are the best in my opinion.

Jack Kelley

I have this problem with modern hinges sometimes, too. It's an excruciatingly fine line between using too much moisture and permanently attaching the hinge to the stamp and not using enough and having the stamp just fall off. This seems to depend as much on the stamp itself, i.e. the kind of paper it's printed on, as the hinge or how it's used. Stamps on more porous or "rougher" paper seem to hold to the hinge lightly, whereas stamps on smoother or more tightly woven paper seem to attach only too well. An even more aggravating issue to me with modern hinges is that they tend to curl badly, often to the point where they almost become unusable. This can contribute to the falling-off problem because only a portion of the hinge is attached to the stamp.

I've had people bring me crappy accumulations of stamps and the only thing I could buy was the open package of Dennison's Hinges. I put them up on ebay and they sell for far more than a current packet's sell for new.

I use the Prinz cheap hinge, and find no issues on adhesion, but I do have my pages in Page covers.
There is a magic, involved in hinging, as you well know,
I dab the hinge ever so lightly, from a dab from inside my lip.

The test is able to pull the stamp off, when dried, with a pair of tongs. (very lightly)
Not easily mastered.

Curling of Prinz is a problem, I overcame this by using my long nose pointy tweezers (the only tongs I use),
Inserting a bunch (5 to 10 or whatever is curling) of hinges in the tongs vertically, and bending them 90 degrees NON gum to NON gum around the leg of the tweezers. (the bend is 90 degrees to the crease made in the factory)
The gum should be on the outside of the bend.
Let go and the hinges should fall on the desk nicely separated, and easily picked up
ready to go.
Good Luck.

A curled bunch of hinges, bent around the leg of long pointy tweezers..

Mystic Co recommends a touch or a dab from a squeezed out moistened sponge.

Rod, I fold curled hinges like that as well. In fact, I've done it on occasion with un-curled hinges with the intent that only part of the hinge would be attached to the stamp. Usually, though, if I'm that worried about what a hinge will do to the stamp, I'll just put the stamp in a mount instead.

In my opinion NO stamp hinge is safe. Every time a hinge is used, damage is being done to the stamp. That's why I mount 100% of my stamps that I place in albums.

Timm,

Even the previously hinged used ones?

Jack Kelley

I can see mounting more expensive stamps in mounts but also can see just mounting common ones in hinges. Yes there may a little more damage to the backside. Some leave the hinge remnant or create a thin. I have stamps that have been mounted more than once before I obtained them.

My biggest complaint hinged stamps is that they are more easily dislodged during page turning and to prevent that you end up with a page size mount (protective sleeve). I do not like all my pages in sleeves for aesthetic reasons.

Mounts are expensive. And they nearly always have to be cut to size. And they make the page heavy. And stamps fall out of mounts. None of these are problems with hinges. Keep that in mind. I like hinges but wish the old Dennson's hinges were still around. Horse glue, unfortunately, is no longer approved.

With the hinges we do have, keeping a glassine or clear mylar page over each page of stamps helps solve the problem of stamps catching on each other, etc. Or just turn the pages carefully. The real problem is stamps on both sides of the pages like in the large worldwide albums. Those stamps will catch on each other.

I wish someone would invent a different kind of stamp hinge, maybe with "post-it" note style of adhesive (so it's easily removable), maybe as a double-sided mount like double-side tape. Put the little square mount on the back of the stamp, peel off the covering paper, attach it to the album page. Easily removable later, but very sturdy if left in place. It could be done. I'd better patent this quickly.

I almost never have an issue with the Showgard/Prinz like mounts. I have more issues with hinges. After all the discussion, I am buying more 2x size clear mounts and then cutting them in two to reduce cost. I did a test and on smaller stamps they seem to work fine. Better stamps would be in full mounts.

I actually want to see the border around stamps on Steiner pages too.

That's nice but expensive, angore. I just use Dennison hinges for used stamps with a Scott value under $25-. Any used stamps that I have over that amount are put in clear Showgard mounts. MNH get black backed Showgards.

Jack Kelley

The hinge supplier said that they can only get their gummed paper from only one source and that they had already bought a large amount as the manufacturer minimum purchase amount so that they cannot do anything about it at the moment. I prefer using Lighthouse Vario pages for different sizes of stamps which means that I do not use mounts or hinges.

Yes, we have to choose our poison when deciding what to do.