Mounting Stamps

I'm curious as to how many of you use hinges and how many use Showgard Mounts of some other method.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

nah nah no hinges for my beautiful stamp but I think you will be my new best friend when I troll SCF at night all by myself sigh

Conn,
I used to "lick 'em and stick 'em" until about two years ago when I decided to upgrade and focus my collection. I'm now in the process of redoing my collection with mounts.

Spock,
Never fear there is always one insomniac on SCF!
Dan

For mint and unused stamps (stamps with the gum missing) I use mounts. Used stamps get hinged.

My collection is in a combination of stockbooks/Varios and album pages. For items on album pages, used/hinged gets hinged, MNH get mounts. I dislike using mounts, and really hate split-back mounts (e.g., Showgard...), preferring the open-top (e.g., Hawid...). Usually end up using my large stockpile of assorted Showgard/Scott mounts because of the limited sizes of the open-top mounts. If I get a large stretch of MNH stamps for one country/area, I will either get a hingeless album or shift it into stockbooks/Varios or mint sheet albums.

I'm in the process of reconfiguring my collection. I no longer use hinges for additions of used stamps on the album pages. I actually use tape (no kidding!). It's the revised formulation of a special 3M removable tape. Another collector and I have been testing it for a few years on both used and gummed stamps, and the results have been impressive enough for us to manually make hinges out of the tape for our used stamps (but not for the oldest classic era stamps, because of stamp paper weakness/deterioration). Still need additional testing on the gummed stamps, but so far the results are equally impressive; surprisingly inert. But one step at a time. Using the special tape for new additions of used stamps only right now.

I love to use my stamps as guinea pigs!

k

Hinges only. I am known for immediately killing the value of MNH material by hinging it into my albums.

But mounts suck as far as I'm concerned and they drastically change the look and feel of an album page.

Hinges for more or less common used, mounts for mint and US classic. I agree with Modern_who that mounts change the look of an album page. I don't mix mounts and hinges on one page though. I used to use the clear mounts, but have used the black mounts for several years now.

Wow! a fellow Spartan
I never even saw a hinge for my first 10 years, swore against them,
vehemently.
I have seen the light, come in from the cold, come out of the closet.
Hinges only, and man, what a delight when you thumb through the pages.

I was helped by noting the condition of hinged stamps that had been cared for (slip cases) etc. I couldn't note any major deterioration.
And why do I want to preserve value when I don't intend to sell?

no no I am not an insomniac the time difference is killing my conversation skills

If anyone gets a hinge within 100 yards of my MNH, there's going to be trouble!

I'm still to create my albums, and everything is in stockbooks (Lighthouse, black page, very nice). As I collect KGV 1911-1936, there's no ready-made album available, so I'll be printing mine. I will use mounts solely.

I'm with you Modern and Rod. Hinges all the way.

Dianne

et tu Dianne? :)

combination of hinges, dealer pages in ringed binders, and stockbooks. Used to mount unused US post 1940 but actually like the feel of the engraved stamps as you thumb through a page. Anything of real value is either in a stock book or its own separate dealer page; although I am not a dealer I find this the safest way to preserve those stamps. Same applies to early or expensive foreign. Duplicates, used or unused, if not NH get hinged and put in albums. I don't deal with mounts anymore.

This is a very frustrating topic. I like albums that are consistent, I am attracted to the idea of not damaging the back, but the process of mounting (cutting or finding the right size) is a pain and cost.

I have been hinging the mounts to my album for the few MNH and higher value 19th century stamps in my collection. As I get more coverage to that page I may move to all mounts. For albums that have a scattering of stamps the hinged mounts denote the MNH and high CAT value stamps...that works great until the page gets close to full then the mix of mounts and hinges looks inconsistent.

My USA album is entirely black background mounts. My newer Australian album is a combo of black-back mounts for the mint, hinged for used. I don't mind the combination on one page. Looks fine in my opinion.
Allan

I have a whole collection of 20-cent stamps carefully protected in 50-cent mounts