Glassine Envelopes (or just "Glassines")


Glassine envelopes are an invaluable, indispensable tool for stamp collectors. Glassine is a thin, lightweight, semi-transparent or translucent paper-type material which is fairly resistant to moisture. It's used in stamp hinges and in glassine envelopes, and unlike regular paper, it contains no chemicals that would harm stamps.

Glassine envelopes are inexpensive, widely available from stamp suppliers and come in a wide variety of sizes. Sizes range from small enough to only hold a few stamps all the way up to large enough to hold booklets, covers and many souvenir sheets. Books made of glassine leaves are also available to store full sheets of stamps. Because glassine is semi-transparent, you can see what's inside without needing to take your stamps out of their glassines.

Along with stock pages or stock books (some of which incorporate glassine pockets and/or interleaving into their design), glassine envelopes are a great way to store stamps until they're mounted onto the pages of your stamp albums, although it's not recommended to leave them in glassines for, say, 50 years.