Hinges

Using hinges is one of the ways to mount your collection on album pages. that is, if you prefer paper pages. If not your cup of tea, see the link under "Alternatives" below.

For one, hinges are used to provide a low cost alternative to stamp mounts for collectors who are not concerned about never hinged stamps. Hinges provide a clean view of your stamps. Stamps can be flipped up to check the back if you've done your hinging the right way. They are easy to use but you have to be careful. With care, stamps can be rearranged as needed to a certain degree and often without having to rehinge a stamp. "Old school" stuff still works here for many collectors.

Tirade on modern hinges (grrrrr) and some history (zzzz)
You will notice that most all hinge packages say "peelable". They're not. Well, maybe if you're outside and it's raining. All hinges today have strongly bonding gum that may be hazardous to stamps. But that's no reason to be afraid to use hinges.

To backtrack, the gold standard of hinges is/was the Dennison brand, now gone. I say "is/was" because there are still unopened packages for sale at premium prices (currently $25-30 for a pack of 1000), for however long those will be available. Dennison hinges are indeed peelable as you will find if you get older collections on pages. These are the pale green ones. The bright green ones are from Fold-O from a specific time, pretty good compared to today's hinges but not like the Dennisons.

The "magic" of Dennison hinges is unknown and disputed. But the glassine paper used is thin, which helps a lot. The gum may have been applied in a very thin double layer so that peeling is easy. This is not to say that Dennisons aren't idiot-proof, since there are plenty of collections where too much moisture was used or badly stored in the damp, so that stamps ended up welded to album pages. So, your dog may be conveniently near you to lick hinges, but avoid the temptation.

There were also once German-made self-adhesive hinges. But it was found over time that the glue soaked into stamp paper, leaving a little stain spot that today would be permanent. Cellophane tape/Scotch tape will cause the same problem over time. Staplers and nailguns are also not good for stamps. just sayin'.

But back to today. It has been stated that there is only one manufacturer of hinges today, Prinze. This certainly seems to be true by comparing brands, but there are differences in glassine paper used. Rumor has it that there is another manufacturer and this writer suspects that that might be true. Still, there may be only one type of gum used today. I believe it is tropical type, that is, it won't get sticky when stored in damper climates. This means it is thickly applied and it takes a disturbance of the gum surface to make the gum stick. Modern envelopes are gummed this way. And so it is with Prinze-made hinges. And those are on thick paper. The hinges are piled up and cut raggedly/poorly because of that. Your mileage may vary.

There are ones that are on thinner paper and have thinner gum, my preference. The brands in that category are DAVO and Dennis e n. Old collectors get huffy about the ripoff name, but it is one of the best ones today, in my opinion. These are still not absolutely peelable but I think better for moving stamps around when needed. You can test drive hinges yourself by buying a pack of one of my suggestions and any other (Prinze-made) brand.

Then, you might want to know how to properly use modern hinges. See: Using modern hinges.

Alternatives

 * Mounts
 * Stock pages
 * Stock books





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