Stamp Collecting for Beginners and Philatelists
| Stamp Auctions for Every Collector Stamps, Covers by US State 5 Hours Register on eBay today |  |
Stamp Collecting with GS
How to Use Stamp Hinges
Moisten one side of the hinge at a time.
1. Moisten the stamp-side and press it flat against the upper-third of the back of the stamp in the center.
|
2. Then dampen a similar small spot on the album-side down toward the end of the tail.
3. Don't wet the top of the album-side.
4. Then press the hinge onto the album, while holding the stamp away at a 90 degree angle.
5. If you wet and stick the top of the hinge's album-side, then after you paste the hinge down in the album, you won't be able to flip up the stamp to see the reverse without jamming the top perforations into the album paper.
6. Don't drench the hinge: Less is better. All you need to do is moisten the gum just enough to activate it and to make it sticky just long enough to adhere to the stamp or the album. It's better to re-stick a stamp than chisel it out later.
Tongue?
Should you lick the hinge or not? They don't taste bad and aren't very fattening, but on the other hand, your eye-hand coordination is probably better than your tongue dexterity, so you might get better results with a dampened cotton swab type of applicator (Q-Tip).
I usually have a swab in my left between the knuckles of my first and second finger, and a pair of tongs in my right as I go.
Mass Effort
|
Someday you may find yourself with a table of modern definitive stamps to mount. You can opt for a mass production method and stick down rows of hinges in the blank album spaces and attach the stamps to them afterward.
Use a shallow tea cup saucer, a small piece of clean kitchen sponge, wet and moist. Using tongs, grab a hinge, gently press the bottom of the album-side into the sponge and tap off the excess water. Then press it onto the page.
When you have a mass of hinges in place, just wipe a damp Q-Tip onto the stamp-sides and place the stamps down with your tongs.
Caution: Be ginger when applying water to the hinges and be on guard for errant drops of water. When I do this I place a piece of plastic under the album page I'm working on so that my wetting and pressing won't affect the page under it. I use a piece of thin hard plastic children in Japan use to support their handwriting practices.
Hinge or Mount?
Hinges are used for the common used, cancelled stamps. They should not be used to display mint, gummed stamps, or any especially valuable stamps, mint or used. As in all things, play it safe.
Mounts should be used to place mint stamps on album pages and for any special items that deserve the extra added protection for their face and perfs that can come from an enclosed plastic mount. But that's a story for another day.
The stamp hinge may not seem like much, but all good stamp collections are built upon them and hinge sticking is the essential craft of all stamp collectors.
