Un-Pre-Folded Hinges?

In the late 60's, my father bought me a tiny box of UNFOLDED hinges. They were slightly larger than the hinges we typically see today, and had rounded corners. I recall that they were from Germany. I fell in love with the folding process - I felt like it gave me more 'control' over that part of my stamp collecting process. I've never seen them since - maybe used in an album, but not as a new supply to be bought. I have bought all kinds of collections and cartons of supplies over the years, but I have never seen them since. Does anyone know what these were? I doubt it, but I'll ask: anyone know where I can buy some?

Here is the story about one of those special childhood memories:

One of those 'special' stamp collecting things that I remember from early on was that my father came home one day and handed me a tiny (1" x 3/4" x 5/8" -ish) carboard box. Kind of like a matchbox, but shorter length, narrower width, and taller. He had a look on his face that said, "Here is something special" when he handed it to me. I hadn't asked for anything, and it wasn't Christmas or my birthday, so I had no idea what to expect. The label on the box only had a few words on it - I recall they were in German, but I might be wrong about the language. Inside was a solid pile of 500 (250??) greenish pieces of glassine, each gummed on one side only. They were a solid stack, like a ream of paper is stacked and solid, without any air spaces like we see in envelopes of pre-folded hinges today. I had NO idea what they were for - the writing on the outside was no help. Dad explained that they were UNfolded stamp hinges. Although the box was rectangular, the hinges inside were almost EXACTLY the size of the box, except that they each had rounded corners. They were all EXACTLY the same size - it appeared that the manufacturer cut them out of a pile of 500 (250??) sheets of gummed glassine all in one motion. Today's envelopes of folded hinges have hinges of varying widths. It all just seemed like such an efficient way (volume-wise) to sell and store hinges. They just really struck my fancy.

Thank you for indulging my reminiscence! Seriously, anyone remember these?

Of course...........
circa 3 weeks ago, ebay

I have these little boxes from Dennison - I think they were part of advertising for a company. I put a 102 on the right for size comparison. I love having them as a bookshelf decoration.

rod - those are definitely along the same lines of what I posted about! Size and shape look right. Color is a little different. The box that I remember had a single stack of them, and was perhaps a millimeter larger on each side of the stack of hinges. I remember having to use my pointy tongs to get them out of the box - all part of the 'process'. I DO think it is cool that your's come with a watermark detector when you are done with the box - I ASSUME they mean the bottom of their box is a watermark tray. (ETA: Oh, I see now - The TOP of the box is a watermark tray. Neat!) I guess I gotta watch ebay closer!!!

101, I've never seen such a set of hinge boxes. Really (REALLY!) cool!

The unfolded hinges work nicely in a hinge dispenser.




This one is marked as "Pat. Pend." and "LZ". The base is plastic. A quick search of a patent database did not locate it.

John Becker, that hinge dispenser is a great piece of stamp memorabilia!

Meghrig packaged and sold a flat, unfolded hinge with the Merit brand name. Great hinges, I still have some and use them regularly. Every bit as good as Dennison's, just not folded.

Oh, to have hinges like these available today.

Don

Growing up in London, England, as a lad I was always drawn to these when I started collecting, since they were neatly bundled in their own little plastic case. The downside: these weren't even remotely peelable, something I discovered to my disdain years later.