Do Hinge Remnants Cause Any Damage To Stamps Over Time?

I have recently been gifted an amount of unused GB stamps from Queen Victoria era. The majority of them have pieces of hinge still attached ranging from full hinges to small fragments. I would ideally like to leave them as is to avoid any damage if I attempt to remove any pieces of hinge but I would appreciate any advice on whether doing nothing could have unintended consequences for the stamps in the long run. I don't believe the stamps have a great deal of monetary value however they came from a family member very dear to me and I want to respect him by doing what's best. I have included some pictures to provide a visual of the hinge remnants I am referring to. Many thanks

Leave the hinges , if there is no gum then you can soak off the hinge . But remember early British stamp change colors if soaked in water . So the best thing is leave them as is ..

Thank you floortrader and rogdcam.

Those are part of the set most infamous for their water soluble ink. I agree with the others leave well alone inthe case of the stamps shown. If yo have stamps with big peices of the paper hinge on them you MIGHT damping a peice of plain kitchen roll with water then put the offending stamphinge side down onto the tissue trying togrt the hinge moist without wetting the ink. Unless there are a three or four hinges one on top of the other I wouldn't even do this.

To answer the original question, hinges cause damage to stamps the moment hinges are affixed.

To start with, this value did not have fiscal use (you could apply two to make up a penny). Consequently, it was not printed in doubly fugitive ink as were the others from this set.

This type of hinge, probably, requires soaking to remove what is left of it. That will remove the gum. Without gum, this stamp is completely worthless. It appears an earlier attempt to remove the hinge already caused damage to the paper, significantly lowering its value.

If you are worried about value: the value of the pair is not much more than that of the lower single that appears 'never hinged,' unless the top stamp is a variety.

In general, if a hinge remnant does not look too bad, removing it may cause (extra) damage. So, you might better leave them as they are. Remnants are a sign someone attempted to remove them and found it could not be done without damaging the stamp.

The hinge, likely, has been attached for many decades. As it caused little damage other than making the stamp 'hinged,' you might wonder what damage it will cause in the next few decades. As long as the stamps look good, there is little reason to mess with them.

If you are concerned about acid free paper and want to be a "custodian" of philatelic material, you should run away from them but many use them. Hinges are paper along with manila stock pages, glassine envelopes, and dealer stock cards.

"Remnants are a sign someone attempted to remove them and found it could not be done without damaging the stamp."

Bit of an overstatement. Sometimes hinge remnants can successfully be removed, sometimes not. It is certainly a risk venture.

In my opinion every hinge, no matter what the brand, does damage to stamps. Sometimes major other times minute. That is why I NEVER use hinges. My entire collection is mounted with Scott mounts and I have over 300 albums.

Interesting aside to this topic:

I purchased a great old BC collection from Siegel once and a large amount of the hinged stamps all had dark brown/black spots exactly where the hinge was applied. After some research I found the likely culprit was a tobacco user licking the hinges. The moral is never lick and stick, use H2O.

Dickens highlighted the horrors of baccy-chewing in 1842, but didn't foresee its philatelic effects

"As Washington may be called the headquarters of tobacco-tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practices of chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening."

Chuck was a decent writer. Loved the story about the gimpy kid and the goose.

There were also hinges introduced in the 1950s that supposedly could be removed leaving no mark on the gum. However the adhesive contained a solvent that penetrated the gum and stamp paper and left a brownish stain over time through the gum and stamp. They were quickly taken off the market. Have no idea as too the brand or manufacturer. I have seen a number of high value stamps, especially early post war German issues damaged this way over the years. Bartlett and Felder back in the 1980s included many such damaged stamps in their " wholesale " lots. I returned them with notes saying " come on for gosh sakes ", and always got a refund, but some people bought them I guess...
I also gave a very nice collection in a thick ledger ruled album on a shelf in front of me mounted with hinges with an arabic gum that has had a similar effect, but have had success removing stains from them few used stamps. The pity is much of the mint are full back of the book sets such as the French postage dues overprinted for French Andorra. Monaco, etc.; Belgian Semi Postals and Railway Parcel Post; British Colonies, Swiss etc, etc. from 1900 to the mid 1930s. I love to look at these as they are hard to find complete, and sadly return the album to the shelf and sigh on what might have been...

I just tested modern hinges (leuchttrum, which apparently are made by Printz). They are definitively not pealable, even slightly.

Anyway, would you consider hinges as a thing of the past for collecting ? Even for the cheapest used stamps ? Would you think that a hinged used stamp worth is less than a non hinged ones ?

The fact is that, for many of us, stamps, particularly used stamps, look far more attractive when hinged rather than enclosed in plastic. There's no reason why a hinged, used stamp should differ in value from an unhinged one - it can always be soaked.