Hawid Mount Problem With Keeping Stamps In Position

I'm very surprised to hear people say that their top-mount experience has been so flawless, that none of their stamps slide around or come out of their mounts. And I'm not sure I believe it, to be honest. I've never -- not once -- seen an album where stamps in top-opening mounts aren't at odd angles or falling out of their mounts. Those could be a different brand of top mounts, or they could be older mounts that don't work well. Or maybe theres's some other explanation. I've bought a lot of albums filled with stamps, and whatever brand of mounts is in them, it's the top mounts that don't hold the stamps well. A Marini-brand Italian album with top-loading mounts that I had shipped to me from Italy arrived with nearly every stamp out of, or partly out of, its mount. Other domestically shipped albums with top loading mounts arrive with stamps cockeyed in their mounts or falling out. Normal handling of albums, of course, is not as aggressive as albums that are shipped, but it's the best test of whether mounts hold stamps well.

Split-back mounts can allow moisture onto the stamp as you lick the top of the back of the mount. And they can pinch the stamp too much which could do damage. All mounts have their drawbacks, I suppose. But top-opening mounts in my experience are not reliable in holding stamps in place securely. I have no idea if there's variation in this problem from one brand to another - and I can't say Hawid mounts are better or worse since I don't use that brand.

The attaching of the mount to the page and the stamp not staying firmly in the mount are two very different things. I do think a bulging album can add to the problem of stamps staying in their mounts as curved pages are likely to "encourage" stamps to move. A good mount should hold better than that, of course. Use spacers definitely to prevent album bulging.

The strongest argument for top-loading mounts, I suppose, is that most (all?) modern stamp album manufacturers use them in their albums. If they don't work well, why do they use them? I've always wondered. Of course, it could be that they're easier to apply to the pages so maybe it's easier to produce an album that way.

Let us know what you find out -- or if other mounts work better for you. A final thought - Is it at all possible you're not sliding the stamp down firmly into the "pinch area" at the bottom of the top-opening mounts? You have to push it in there to get it to hold the stamp. I'm sure you know that, of course.

I use the cut if half Prinz/Showgard mounts and HAWID mounts and feel the HAWID are better in retention plus HAWIDs do not crease as easily. Above 37mm, I will use a split back. Do they move a little at times? Yes but they can be quickly fixed compared to fiddling with a split backs to insert and adjust.

I just bought some Hawid 100s and was surprised to find they were sealed at top and bottom and I had to tediously slide the French Colonies 1937 Omnibus Souvenir Sheets into them. Those will never move!!

This conversation brings me back to my youth when I started collecting and eventually discovered Hawid mounts. The stamps moving around was an on-going pita, and the same thing happened when I purchased a set of three Lighthouse Germany hingeless albums that came with clear open-top mounts on fairly heavy stock. I was thrilled to eventually come across split-backs and have used them ever since. As long as one is careful with moisture application, gum glazing doesn't become an issue.
One downside I'm aware of with the split-backs is when it comes time to sell, dealers don't particularly care for the extra work involved in examining the stamps so mounted. I have a classic era set of Vintage Reproduction Albums that I use exclusively for MNH stamps. I suspect when my heir goes to sell them there will be much gnashing of teeth by prospective buyers LOL (and yes, I instructed Jr. that if any prospects try to downgrade the stamps to MH value because they can't be bothered to confirm the stamps to be MNH in these albums or any other collections on my shelves, to show them the door).

I personally use split back mounts. I have received in the mail stamps that were placed in Hawid open top mounts and they almost always arrive having moved out of the mount or somewhere in between. Most of the issues I seem to see with split back are if the entire mount is mounted. I only wet the very upper portion of the mount. I never wet and mount the lower part. Some of my stamps have been in split back mounts for almost 30 years now, and nothing is different, but I also place my books upright on a shelf and don't let them get stuffed.

And as a result, sellers frequently sell the stamps as MNH without actually looking at the stamps. When hinged stamps are inevitably discovered, the seller will say, "Why would the collector put hinged stamps in mounts?"

Why indeed.

I do not like or use hinges. Everything goes into a mount.

"Why indeed."

I don't understand this comment unless perhaps it refers to clear mounts. If you are using black mounts for MNH stamps, would someone really use hinges for MH or used stamps? What an ugly looking page that would make.

I use Showguard mounts for stamps above a certain catalog value level, regardless of being MNH, LH or used. If a stamp is MNH, I add a notation in pencil next to the mount, Or sometimes LH.

I've been using black split-back mounts for decades, once I purged myself of the old Crystal mounts.

Thank you again to all for your valuable comments. It looks like I am likely going to remount using clear split back mounts which is going to be a mega pain in the butt. I will also lose the album pages which gets me to thinking about making my own. There are some items that will probably stay in Hawid's because they are too fragile (perforated margin copies with selvedge) to withstand insertion in split back's. As the value of the stamps I am putting into the collection goes up I cannot chance any of them escaping and being damaged. The worst offenders to date are diamond shaped issues like the 1935 Spartacist set because the one closed side is on the diagonal and the Scott layout is not aligned so I cannot use a strip. Plus my OCD over everything being squared away is making me nuts. What a bummer.

I use the same strategy as Climber Steve, except for specialized collections...where everything goes in split-back mounts.

I have this very same problem with Vario pages. There seem to be certain stamps that are ALWAYS falling over. It's like there are some pages that hold stamps firmly, and other pages that do not.

Split-back mounts can be a bit oversized, which reduces the chance of damaging stamps when folding the mount back in place after viewing. Sounds like someone should come up with a mount properties to better hold stamps in place.

A big part of the problem seems to be the thickness of the mount material. I understand that property is in part driven by practical concerns such as not having the mount thickness interfere with the pages laying flat and creating even greater bulge. It would be great to have a mount that is constructed of stiffer material of the same existing thickness that more firmly retains it's closed position tightly. I have not taken measurements but it seems that all Hawid mounts are not created equal since mounts with deeper millimeter measurements seem to be constructed of thinner material than some of there smaller relatives. If the market would support it I would look into developing another mount that combines better spring action with crystal clarity and a thin cross section. That dog does not hunt from a financial perspective. Thoughts?

I would suggest the vast majority of us have albums on a shelf. When we want to work on them we walk some small distance to the shelf, and return 10 feet back to our desk. That is the average distance they are expected to travel.

I would urge folks to not decide to ignore Hawid mounts simply because a shipment in the mail/UPS/FedEx results in shifted stamps.

For work, we ship expensive equipment via the major shippers in laser cut foam cutouts in heavy Pelican cases, and the equipment arrives damaged pretty frequently. Shipping is a rough life for any item, be it electronic in custom shipping containers, or stamps in mounts on an album page in a flat getting frisbeed from station to station or tossed into a bag upside down...

Keep the binders/albums vertically on shelves and don't bounce them around, and you will have few if any problems. I have brought my various collections on homemade pages to stamp shows and spent the night in hotels and flown back home and had no issues.

Great thing about our hobby - you have so many choices as to how you decide to display your collection!

For me, Hawid top loaders are the best solution, and I am sticking with them.

I do have a question for those having problems, what sized mounts are you using? Having too small a mount (height-wise) may be contributing to the issue.

My mounts are properly sized and my albums are only moved within a room in order to work on them. Turning the pages causes the stamps to move about, sometimes a little and sometimes a whole lot and sometimes they become very off kilter by virtue of multiple small movements. And sometimes if I do not pay close attention one or two can escape.

I sense a Youtube video coming on.