Hinging Mint Foreign Stamps

The stamps of many countries have equal catalog values for mint and used stamps, or the used ones are only slightly below the mint. If a hinge is used on the mint stamp, does it decrease its value below that of a used one?

Depends, really.

The catalog values for modern stamps are largely just formula based: Scott uses "twice face value" as the default, for instance, and same CV for mint and used, and those prices sometimes aren't updated for decades. They don't reflect actual market transactions.

There are some countries where modern postally used stamps sell for more than modern mint stamps, although for most the postally used will sell for less than mint, even though they have the "same" catalog value. Unused hinged stamps usually sell for less than post office fresh MNH. It doesn't make a lot of difference for most stamps though.

Value is often discussed on this forum, with as many different opinions as there are participants.

For me, the best used stamp shows the town name, or at least a part of it, and the date. If it is less than that, then it has lesser value.

For a mint stamp issued from around 1950 on, it should be without hinging. If it is hinged, then it has lesser value.

I don't think it is possible to give a blanket statement about MH versus used, because it is a "case by case" situation.

There is indeed no blanket answer, but one of the big factors is the existence of a discount postage (i.e., non-collector) market.

If you have large quantities of hinged modern US, it'll sell for about the same as large quantities of NH modern US, 60-70% of face, more for higher denominations, because the discount postage market only cares that there's gum, hinged or not. They will sell for far more than large quantities of used US stamps would.

If you have, say, pre-Euro post-1960 German stamps unused hinged, they will sell for hardly any money at all; those aren't good for postage anymore, so no discount postage market, and collectors of unused Germany have a very strong preference for NH material. Very fine used examples would sell for substantially more than unused but hinged would.

As other have said, it depends. High value stamps shouldn't be hinged under any circumstances (particularly with modern hinges), even if there's already a hinge mark. Stamps valued at Scott minimum probably aren't going to take much of a hit in real world value if they're hinged. I've hinged many low value NH stamps over the years, but recently I've shied away from that. I'm not worried about resale value, but I kind of look at myself as a caretaker of the stamp for the next generation of collectors.



Yep, this is particularly true for many modern used stamps. Depending on the country, they'll value used stamps at 2x face same as mint, or sometimes they'll value mint at 2x face and used at 1x face. In many cases, the used versions are realistically penny stamps as they're plenty common. As another example of how Scott prices for recent issues don't reflect market pricing, you can look at Japan, where Scott automatically assigns most used issues a value of about 1.5x face. 82Y issues (the current letter rate) are valued higher than recent 52Y & 62Y issues (the current postcard rate). At least in the kiloware I've purchased, used postcard rate stamps are a couple orders of magnitude scarcer than letter rate stamps and usually sell for a higher price, but Scott assigns the higher value to the letter rate stamps.

I wish hinges had never been invented.

It depends on what you're collecting - and what you're collecting in - and what look you like. I prefer the look of hinged stamps on a page, although I tend to use mounts because I have quite a few hingeless albums that push you in that direction. As to "value", it would have to be fairly high before I declined to hinge a previously hinged mint stamp on principle. If you use a traditional fast-bound album, as I do in a few cases, the stamps really shouldn't be hinged - it looks awful and the album will bulge.

Billresh,

Are you seriously thinking of using mounts? Sounds wicked expensive to me.

Jack Kelley

A 20 cent catalogue MNH stamp, that is really a two cent stamp becomes a one cent stamp after it's hinged, and after I soak the nasty gum off of them they become a half cent stamp. Gum worship is a terrible disease.