Get Those Hinges Off My Stamps

Need some advice regarding the best method for removing hinges from mint stamps to remount them. Soak? Peel? Moisten and Peel? Then best drying method? Then rehinge or use mounts? Probably depends upon the value of the specific stamp? In any case, would appreciate any advice.

Too tired at the moment to lay out how I do this. Will try tomorrow.

Drying time is almost nothing. You can rehinge (what I do) or use mounts afterwards.

I have had some success with using a very small paint brush, dipped in water, then lightly moisten the hinge (being careful not to get water on the non-hinged gum area around the edges). Practice on a cheap stamp. I found that it takes a few passes of this. The times I've done it though, the stamp wasn't totally flat when I was done.

I know this is not what you want to hear—but personally I wouldn't bother. If the stamp has any significant value your chances of destroying the stamp are at least as good as getting it off without residue and in the end you still have a stamp that is previously hinged or worse. If low value or used, wash it off with water.

If the hinge being there is more important than the gum (value?) then soak in water and be satisfied with unused/no gum. For 19th century stamps, this would never be a consideration for me even though I would have no problem buying an unused no gum certified copy of an expensive stamp upfront.

In fact I have a very well centered high denomination Columbian og/certified. I can't remember which dollar value it is. It wouldn't occur to me to play with this stamp and the closer the hinge is the perfs even more so..

On the other hand, we do have a forum member who removed a hinge from an unused/og copy of Scott 70d in the past year or so. I personally wouldn't have touched that stamp. Upon certification a small thin was noted in the area of the hinge removal. The owner tells me that he is certain it was present before the hinge removal process. Regardless of that thin, the stamp hammered for over $50K. I should say that this item was extremely well centered. And it was a very rare stamp.

So there you have both sides of it. I told you that you would not like my answer.

I have used Prinz Stamp Lift fluid. It states it should dry flat but found it is best to just put in a stamp drying book and let it dry.

But I did.
I thought you were bang on with..




and



Bang on ! Quickest way to have a thin, or lose teeth.

Yikes! I cant imagine trying to remove a hinge from a 50k stamp. I think I would operate on someone before I try that.

Thanks to all. Good advice-used the paintbrush technique and it worked fairly-might do better with a few more tries. Also good thought on soaking stamps of low value, and watching the perfs on a stamp when you remove hinges. Lastly, I only get $50K stamps two or three times a year so I don't have to worry about that. Just kidding, I'm a mid-cap collector for now. Again, Thanks to all!

The part that is bonded directly to the stamp I ignore and 'live with the lump'. I have carefully torn off loose remnants with my tongs but I know that creates some risk. Would never try that with certain stamps.

Here's my variant, with details, on the brush method I use.

You will need:

• an artist's sable brush from an art supply store, anywhere from size 0 to 6. Sable is a catchall today, as there can be anything used for it. You might faint at the cost of one good quality sable brush. But all you need is a brush that can hold a point. So cheap Chinese-made sable brushes will work fine, but will wear out much faster. I may have bought a lifetime supply for hinge removal with a package of 10 of those. Long handles can be cut down if you don't like those.


• distilled water. It penetrates somewhat better and avoid things added to tap water. All you'll need for one session is a small amount in (say) a clean plastic condiment cup. Low sides keep you from spilling water all over. If the water is accumulating crud, change it.


• a good pair of tongs like a Showgard 902 that has an edge that you will be using to lift the hinge. A hobby knife works, even with a somewhat dulled used blade. A scalpel or similar blade is overkill and can easily ruin the stamp if you're not absolutely careful


• tissues or paper towels.


• a good light and an Optivisor or freestanding magnifier.

This will not work well in super dry conditions and may go badly in very humid conditions. So pick your days or work places to do this.

You never dunk the whole brush point or leave it sitting brush side down in a glass of water. So dampening (say) the bottom half of brush, not loading the brush with as much water as you can, you can start when the brush is slightly flexible.

With most hinges, start by lightly tracing along the right, bottom and left edges with the brush, using just the point of the brush. Yes, that includes the stamp gum. This will wick into the space between hinge and stamp. You may need to do this twice, with experience.

Then paint the rest of the hinge evenly so it remains slightly damp. Perhaps two or three times. For artists, this is called "pulling a wash". Again, avoid putting a puddle on top of the hinge.

At this point, you should be able to see the hinge's bottom edge starting to buckle very slightly. Work your tong or blade under a lower corner, lift it slightly and grab the hinge, either with the tongs or with a blade with the corner held down with a finger or fingernail. Pull the hinge up diagonally; some hinges will tear if you do that, though. If you've done a good dampening job and the hinge is not decayed, The whole hinge will come up in one go.

You've also avoided putting stress on the perfs if the hinge is stuck down on them. There should be no wetness to the place where the hinge was. You are trying to break the bond between hinge and stamp gums with the minimal amunt of water, not washing them apart. The result will usually be a semi-matte spot that would be much like what's left after peeling an old Dennison hinge. That's the idea anyway. There should be no mark from when you ran the brush point around the stamp edges. Typical processing time for a normal/"easy" hinge is maybe 20 seconds. Modern Prinze and Prinze-made hinges even less. And the stamp is still flat (if it was originally), dry and ready to remount right then.

Therefore, it's up to you (and your abilities) to decide whether it's worth removing hinges from a bunch of cheap low values in a set. To me, it counts as hobby time, so I'll do it. Even for commercial purposes, I can often do this fast enough that it's been worth it to offer MLH stamps that can sell rather than MHR stamps that do not. And today, with the knowledge of how bad Prinze-type hinges are, you'll find a lot of stamps left with them on. And the next collector just puts Prinze-type hinges on them again? Plus MLH has often become "Well, it's LH if not for the hinge remnant being there, I just know it." for dealers that should know better.

Keep your tongs or your blade clean and dry. A bit of tissue lightly dipped in your water is good for that. I just wipe off and pile the hinge remnants on a Kleenex and throw it away when it's loaded up.
You will probably want to practice on cheap duplicates before tackling stamps going into the collection. And yeah, I've removed hinges from stamps that later sold for many hundreds of dollars. Experience tells me if removal is possible or not.

Problem hinges will be dealt with in a following post.

Let me add here that if you are stripping album pages for stamps, leave what you can of the hinge part that was on the album page. It's good handle for removing hinges once you've got the corner up, PROVIDED that the hinge is not stuck down on the perfs.

Problem hinges

I don't keep a record of all the hinge types I find. Good or bad storage, lightness or heaviness of hinge application are more major factors. Some brands were quite water resistant. And you don't know that until you start work. It's a great help to have stamps on pages once owned by a single owner since the hinge brands used tend to be the same, and the aging and application style tend to be fairly consistent so all the hinges probably can be removed the same way.

While ancient Dennison hinges remain the gold standard for peelability, there are still collections where the collector used them but basically welded the stamps onto a album page. Since the glassine material in those is relatively thin, they can be lifted successfully with the first technique though you might tear hinges.

So, always start with the original method. If the hinge is not buckling (and that's only slight buckle) and the hinge cannot be lifted fully, more light applications of water washes are called for. At this point, like with those welded Dennisons, you might tear the hinge. Just keep lifting what you grabbed and remove what you can, then reapply water washes, usually just a couple, to the remaining stuck down part. You may need your magnifier to make sure you get all the remnants. The barest touch with a damp brush point will help you lift those off.

brown hinges
I believe these to be badly made originally, perhaps even using low grade wartime paper. They tend to be slow to lift and also tend to fall apart. So you'll need an extra dose of patience with these but you will normally find the stamp gum underneath is unaffected. These are ones where it's nice to have the album part intact so you have that as a handle to help pull up the hinge. Luckily, these aren't too common nowadays.

paper hinges
The gummed paper commonly used were cut bits of box and file folder labels. These show printed frame lines around the edges often enough, and they are quite thick and fairly water resistant. So, do the tracing around the edge thing of the improvised hinge a couple of times. When the paper is fairly thick you will need several water washes to wet it. The you might be disappointed to find you have just split the label pulling up only the top layer. But actually, this is just what we want, and hopefully all or most of that top label layer is removed in one go. Once again, do the tracing bit and water washes over the softer fibrous surface left. With care and perhaps a little luck, you can pull this up intact or in a couple of large pieces. You can end up with with a pretty clean stamp gum surface underneath. Otherwise, you might also have tiny bits of label paper left, so check for that and use the tiniest dots of damp brush point to wet them so they can be removed. This may leave the stamp pretty damp, so let it dry. It might try to curl or not, so a stamp drying book might useful at this point.

Since paper label hinges can be quite thick, you might still have a humpbacked stamp after removal. Assuming the back is dry, lightly dampen the stamp FRONT and press the stamp in weighted blotters, paper towels or a drying book. No guarantees, but it's worth a try.

linen
Gummed linen strips, looking much like gauze, were once commonly available so pieces were also improvised as hinges. Again, use the method above and you can pull up the upper layer (if there is one) after moistening, then remove the rougher weave lower layer. Again, as above, it's more work and the stamp is likely to have some remaining dampness.

multiple hinge remnants – Hinge Removal 101
Sometimes, you'll easily pull up a hinge only to reveal another hinge underneath. Or you'll find a stamp you want and need with all kinds of hinges and pieces on the back. Hopefully, it's for sale cheap and you can take a shot at making it better.

First, you have to identify what hinge or pieces are the topmost layer. You may initially need to lightly wet the whole mess and quickly daub it dry. The top hinge or fragment should now stand out. Working on that top hinge ONLY, do the outlining thing and water washes, and remove it. You can only do one at a time, I warn you now. The go on to the next, where you again may have to moisten and daub to figure out which one that is. And so on and so forth. Your magnifier and touch will tell you if you have left tiny bits that are best removed.

Thanks to Hy-Brasil for the great explanation!

Forgot to state the obvious. This method works for used stamps, too, particularly those with fugitive ink like Great Britain and colonial Victorian and Edwardian issues. Some early careful collector might have left some paper on and with care, it can be removed. Of course, if the paper shows part of the cancel, it's worth saving intact.

With practice, you can work efficiently and can process used stamps equally fast. Those with multiple hinges are probably more easily soaked, otherwise used stamps treated this way are ready for your album immediately. If there's a fair amount of hinge gum residue, you should lightly blot the back with a damp tissue and briefly let it dry to prevent curling.

WARNING. I can't edit the earlier posts so I hope you get this far. Hinge removal of any kind should not be done for any 1860s-1880 King Luiz embossed head issues for Portugal and her colonies. These are generally heavily embossed and with time/aging, the stamps are very likely to split around the head.