We all know about mold and dampness causing damage to stamps, but what about dryness? Is using air conditioning in the home bad for stamps?


The cleanest collections we've ever seen had been stored where the humidity is low. Low humidity is why the nearly perfectly preserved human mummies from the Valley of The Kings in Egypt, and the northern Atacama Desert in Chile, exist. Very low humidity kept them nearly perfectly preserved. And it works on stamps as well as mummies. But if the humidity is too low, gummed stamps will tend to curl and eventually the gum will crack. The ideal humidty is definitely not zero, it's probably something closer to around 30%.

Should I Use Stamp Mounts or Stamp Hinges For My Stamp Collection? Part 1 of 4 Parts.

Some people - especially older stamp collectors and those who collect used stamps - prefer the old-style gummed stamp hinges that until the 1950s or 1960s were just about the only thing available for mounting stamps.

Other people would never even consider using hinges in their stamp collections.

Each mounting method has its good points and its bad points. This post will discuss the advantages of using stamp mounts.

Advantages of Stamp Mounts:

• unlike hinges, a properly used stamp mount will leave no mark on the stamp. This preserves the "mint never hinged" condition of unused, unmounted stamps. Hinging a previously mint never hinged stamp can significantly and adversely affect its value. Thus, using stamp mounts instead of hinges can preserve the value of your unused stamps.
• stamp mounts, unlike hinges, can help protect your stamps. When stamp mounts are used, the stamps are enclosed in a protective plastic-like layer. The stamps are much less likely to fall off the page or get tangled up with each other
• if a collector acquires a "better" copy of a stamp that he or she already has, it's very easy to do a switch and replace: simply slip the stamp to be replaced out of the mount (leaving the mount in place on the album page) and slip the new stamp right in. No muss, no fuss, and no damage to either of the stamps.
• stamp mounts are available in dozens and dozens of different sizes, and can be purchased in strips to be cut to size as needed (a bit less expensive) or in pre-cut sizes (very convenient and time-saving). The larger sizes allow a collector to place large items such as souvenir sheets or stamp panes into an album without having to use multiple hinges.

Part 2 - the disadvantages of stamp mounts - will be posted tomorrow.