Are These Pm Or Crystal Mounts?

I read a thread on this forum about PM and Crystal mounts and how they are to be avoided.

https://goscf.com/t/41687

Since a photograph is always helpful, especially for a beginner, are the stamps in the following panels enclosed in a PM or Crystal Mount?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/50-Years-o...233570611545


Is there a high probability of stamps in such enclosures already being damaged or becoming damaged if removing them?

Unless you have a desire to own the descriptive panels, you can by all of these stamps in MNH condition for far less money than is being asked.

Correct! Not interested in specific listing but I have seen other panels with these type of mounts and the fact they are sealed. Reading the post about PM or Crystal mounts made me wary and wanting to confirm if these mounts in the listing are to be avoided if wanting to remove stamps?

The glare spots indicate that they may be sealed on all four sides, so they are not Crystal Mounts. Crystal Mounts are flattened, open tubes.

Although they might be sealed on four sides, there is no black, self-adhesive paper backing, so they are not PM Mounts.

bookbndrbob: Thank you. How easy or difficult is it to remove stamps from these mounts?

Torin, I am not familiar with the mounts on the pics.

Many long-time collectors like myself are all-too-familiar with removing stamps from PM Mounts. I would carefully cut two adjacent edges with a sharp pair of shears, and lift them out with pointed tongs. Sometimes you'd be lucky and the stamp would not be damaged by the acidic, black paper backing.

Crystal mounts would deform the stamps. The "bonus damage" was caused by using adhesive tape on the mount edges. This was necessary to keep the stamps from sliding out. After a few years, the tape adhesive would degrade and migrate into the stamp paper. Sometimes, you could rescue stamps from Crystal Mounts, if no tape was used on them.

bookbndrbob: Thank you for the explanation. I've never seen those type of mounts either and was wondering why any company would use them. Don't see any benefit to them.

For the record, they were created by the company that made these albums, much later than the what's implied by the "cancels". Those cancels are all fake, of course. Note that there is some yellowing of mounts in at least the Overrun Countries page.

hy-brasil: I also noticed the yellowing of the mounts. Perhaps the company didn't use acid free or archival quality mounts or even cardstock. Some of the stamps (1970s) in that listing also appear toned (don't know if that's a result of being sealed in their mounts or lighting/camera of seller). In any event, I've never seen an encapsuled stamp in an album like that before and it make me suspicious about the effects of it on the stamp and probably being impossible to remove without damaging the stamp. I think I will avoid products by that company or stamps in albums that are encapsuled.

Torin, the first mounts I used as a novice collector were Protective Mounts. I soon learned better. Here is a photo of one--they were sealed on three sides and open at the top, and once the stamp was inserted the top flap could be sealed, if desired.

Those are some annoying mounts when trying to extricate stamps.

I wonder if the companies that made such mounts or used such mounts in albums knew of the inherent issues with them?

The album was made by the Postal Commemorative Society, so I doubt they really cared about the long term condition of the stamps enclosed within the mounts.

Not that I personally care, but someone paid over $100 for the listing in my OP. The buyer must know something we don't about being able to safely remove stamps from those mountings.

Nah

I am astounded at the price. You see these sorts of sets from time to time. I think most were made in the 1970s and early 80s for the "collectible market" and usually sold by subscription. I would normally ignore them as the face value of the stamps doesn't justify the time it would take to remove them from their mounts. If this price is real and not an anomaly I am amazed.