How Not To Hinge A Stamp Into An Album

Well, its good to know that Ohio isn't moving.

That must have been done by a super pro back in the day.

I wonder if its peelable.

Looks like a Dennison hinge so all should be well

You won't screw up the gum if you hinge the front side.

Funny, but probably done by a child unfamiliar with how to use hinges. I hope they eventually learned. At least it's not Scotch tape, a mistake I made many times when I was first collecting decades ago.

Drew, your comment dredged up some memories of my first collecting days. Don't remember the year (it too was decades ago), but my parents gave me an album & a box of worldwide stamps for Christmas. While I had expressed an interest in collecting stamps, I really didn't know what I was doing. Neither did my mother. Instead of hinges, she gave me a roll of scotch tape. I have no recollection of where or how I learned about hinges … at a guess, I suspect the damage to the stamps finally became too obvious to ignore.
John

Drew,

My first time a neighbor collector gave me some foreign stamps and an album. I promptly went out and bought a bottle of Elmer's glue. Needless to say when I proudly showed him my accomplishment I got "educated". Not sure if we ever spoke again.

When I first started, before I got an album, I trimmed the perfs off my stamps to make them look nicer. My uncle soon taught me the error of my ways.

In the early years of stamp collecting in the mid to late 19th century, collectors routinely glued stamps into their albums. I've seen a few of those albums, and believe me, those babies are never coming off those pages. You'd have to cut them out of the albums if you wanted to collect them.

In those days, embossed "stamped envelopes" were cut from the envelopes and trimmed right down to the edges of the stamp, making them into little circles.

Wasn't there a lady in England in the early years of stamps who bought thousands of used Penny Blacks and glued them to her bedroom wall? There sure are a lot of ways to ruin stamps, aren't there? Fortunately, young and otherwise inexperienced collectors who do these things are generally doing them to common cheap stamps no one is going to miss very much.

One reason I no longer how my cheap little beginners' "Majestic" (uh huh) stamp album was that it was so filled with sticky yellowing Scotch tape, I couldn't stand looking at it anymore. So I trashed it. I recently bought someone else's old Majestic album for a couple of bucks just so I could see what I'd started collecting with many decades ago. No Scotch tape in their album. Well, maybe in a few places.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/RCsA.../s-l1600.jpg

A lot of great posts! Interesting reading.

My friend had some full sheets of used postage dues, some high values, and we decided it was a good idea to laminate them, along with a few other items!

Ouch!

Bookbndrbob, your not kidding. Ouch!

I also got burned and experienced the pain of such an application on a promisary note that had a bill stamp affixed to it. Rather than just make a copy of it as requested the print shop lady took it upon herself to preserve the old document for me by yes, laminating it to preserve it.

Lesson learned. Never let them out of your possession into the hands of others without watching what they are doing to them.