Fold-O-Hinges - White Or Green Or ?

I only use Dennison or Fold-O-Hinge pre-folded stamp hinges in my albums. They of course are a bit pricey, and I buy them periodically off ebay. Dennison's have always come in light green. Fold-O-Hinge have as well, but I recently got 4 packs of semi-clear white.

The packs appear to be original and not tampered with, and dated 1955 as are my packs of green ones.

So my question is, did Fold-O-Hinge manufacture some in white, or have I been "baited and switched"?

Thank you!

I try mounting a common stamp - or even one which has minor damage - let it dry for a couple of days and then remove the stamp and the hinge from the stamp.

If it works the same as the light green ones, great. If not, you've been baited and switched.

The vintage Fold-O-Hinges are a semi-transparent white.
Don

Thanks for the comments!

The thing is, I have the pack I'm now using with green hinges, and an identical pack just purchased with white hinges. Both have a 1955 date, and Chicago manufacture location. That leads me to ask, did they produce two colors in the same year?

In any case, I'm testing them now and will get back to this thread with the results.

1955 is the date of trademark registration of the Fold-O name. That's what the TM or R in a circle means. It has absolutely nothing to do with the date of manufacture of any pack of hinges.

Hy-brasil,

I do believe you are correct! And that clears up some of my concern. I guess there is no "pack date" available then.

BTW, I did a sheet of 9 stamps using the new white hinges. I'll do removal tests on a couple in a few days, and a few more a couple days later, and see how they work.

Hi mobilman:

I have never seen any green Fold-O's. There is a date clue on Fold-O-Hinge packages, however. If there is a zip-code after Chicago, bottom center they would be of 1963 or later manufacture.

It is my understanding that pre-1963 Fold-O-Hinges are different and somewhat better than the later ones.

Don

Be aware that Fold-O HInges are still made and sold in Canada (and sold in the U.S. from Canada), but they are not the original hinges from yesteryear. They are like all the other hinges today which means their glue is different and more aggressive, much harder to remove stamps from the page or hinges from the stamps.

The modern Canadian Fold-O Hinges come in the classic package but with a little maple leaf logo on the package (plus Made in Canada, I imagine). They aren't the good old hinges, though, even if do they look very similar. The seller must have bought the Fold-O name at some point. I don't know what the trademark date on the pages is, but it's not of much use to even know that. They do not show a "date of manufacture" which might be useful.

I've tested about 20-25 different brands of current, modern hinges just for my own curiousity. I guarantee you that they are all exactly the same and have equally miserable glue on them. They may all come from the same company, in fact. Using less moisture helps, but it's not the good old days of excellent stamp hinges anymore, I'm afraid.

Hi, back with the results of my tests......
To give a bit of background, I have had several packs of Fold O Hinges with the 1955 copywrite date, made in Chicago. Most of the earlier packs I bought (off ebay) were green. Recent ones I bought off ebay were white. Both packages were 100 percent identical.

I have had really good luck with the green ones and was skeptical of the white ones. So I got a number of similar stamps, attached them with the white hinges, and removed a portion after 3 days, one week, and two weeks.

Well, the hinges peeled off the stamps beautifully - equal to the green ones, or the Dennison's which I also have.

One more comment......the white hinges are a tad thicker than the green ones. It doesn't seem to matter any, and may provide for a sturdier hinge.

I guess Fold-O-Hinge went from green to white stock sometime in the 50s or 60s.
t

Good info and much appreciated. Thank you for your efforts.

Jack Kelley

Fold-Os were not originally bright green. They were more off-white/yellowish before then. The green color seems to have been used around the 1970s sometime based on albums/album pages seen. I do not know when they went to the heavier, almost bright white paper glassine stock they use today, but the green color probably wasn't used for very many years.

So let me ask. Are Fold-O-Hinges still available? Or is it "new old stock"?

Jack Kelley

I have these from 1941. Not sure what color they were.

"Are Fold-O-Hinges still available? Or is it "new old stock"?"

For an answer, read my post above. There are hinges sold under the Fold-O brand by a Canadian company, but they do NOT appear to have the original glue formula. They behave like other modern hinges, difficult to remove from pages and stamps. I won't use them. Any Fold-O hinges that hold well and remove easily must be from old packs of hinges, "NOS".

The 1941 copyright date shown above would be the year the brand or package design was copyrighted. But it would not likely be the year of manufacturing which could have been years, or even decades, later. I wish hinge packets were "age dated" like milk or bread, but they never are.

I'm waiting for the return of the "good old stamp hinges of my youth" like Dennison and Fold-O, but I'm not holding my breath! The old glue formula which allowed removing the hinge without any damage does not seem repeatable. It may have something to do with FDA regulations about the glue they used which could have involved the old-fashioned use of animal parts. I'm not sure, but that seems plausible, and I have heard that speculation a few times. I wish someone would figure out a really good modern glue formula that works for mounting stamps, etc., a glue that holds well, stays put for years, but is removable without damaging the paper. Some collectors use "double-sided tape" and so on, but I don't want to experiment on my stamps. This is one reason for the move to stamp mounts, I suppose.