Mounts

Mounts, or stamp mounts are used to preserve gum on MNH stamps and stamps overall.

Original types
With the rise of collecting MNH stamps, an alternative to stamp hinges were created. These are in the "good idea that turned out to be very bad" category. Any unused packages found old collections should be destroyed, preferably by shooting them into the Sun so that they can never be used. Do not buy the eBay offerings of "vintage" stamp mounts if you care about your stamps at all.

Crystal Mounts were flat tubes of thick acetate with a gummed strip on the back, to be trimmed to stamp width. They came in several sizes and instructions were given to fold the bottom sides to better fit stamps. The problems came with stamps easily slipping out of the tube ends, solved by some collectors by sealing the sides with cellophane tape. Over time, that eventually stained stamps with a sticky brownish mess. Some other collectors were determined to make sure the mounts would never fall off an album page by wetting the gummed strip well enough that moisture would slop inside the mount – so much for MNH. Folding Crystal Mounts would also result in the mounts warping/shrinking though some would distort all on their own. Even if you avoided those problems, cut mounts would clash with each other on worldwide album pages, damaging stamps that slipped out, plus your album would immediately become several times thicker.

PM mounts were acetate fronts backed with black paper. with cut tabs to be folded under the mount. The backs were self-adhesive. Individual mounts existed in common US stamp sizes, but custom ones could be could down from larger mounts. The black paper was porous and would absorb moisture – goodbye MNH stamp. The acetate was again subject to warping/shrinkage over time. And like using Crystal Mounts, you would have to buy extra binders because of the thickness of PM mounts.

Stamp mounts today
Today's stamp mounts are made of inert polystyrol. They are sold as pre-cut in mostly US stamp sizes, or in strips that can be cut to size.





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