Acid-Free Paper in Stamp Album Pages


Acid-free paper used for stamp album pages. It's something no one in "the good old days" ever concerned themselves with, or even thought about. But most, if not all, commercial stamp album publishers emphasize the necessity of the acid-free paper they use.

Is acid-free paper really needed in stamp albums? Like many things in life, it all depends. It doesn't really matter for most stamp collections unless they're stored in hot, humid locations with very little air circulation. The grandchildren who inherit your stamp collection may notice some darkening on the edges of the pages if you use acid paper, but you'll be long gone before anything bad happens, as long as your collection is properly stored in an appropriate location.

Although damage from acid paper is possible if you store your stamp collection in a hot and humid attic or for long periods of time in a tropical climate without air conditioning, proper storage can usually prevent it. Store your stamp albums vertically (upright), not laying on their side. This allows them to "breathe," with air circulating among the pages. Don't keep your collection anywhere that's hot and humid, or you'll be taking a chance.

Stamp Albums & Glassine Interleaving


Glassine interleaving is large sheets of glassine material that have been cut to the proper size and then punched to fit into stamp albums. If you use a stamp album that has album pages printed to hold stamps on both sides, front and back, then interleaving is an almost essential stamp collecting tool, needed to protect your stamps. Although albums with two-sided pages are less expensive, they have one major drawback: if your stamp albums aren't stacked properly, opened and closed very carefully, or if the pages aren't turned very carefully, they can significantly contribute to damaging your stamps.

Here's how this can happen. If you stack your stamp albums on top of each other, or if you simply place one on a table laying flat (horizontally) every time you move an album its spine shifts a little bit, causing the pages to slide back and forth against each other. The stamps on those pages naturally slide back and forth too, and when there are stamps on facing pages, they can tangle up, causing perforation damage, creases and even torn stamps just by leafing through the album. It's even possible that some minor amounts of printing ink used on the stamps might rub off onto the facing stamps, potentially discoloring them. Glassine interleaving will prevent both of these problems.

Even if you store your stamp albums vertically - as you always should - stamps on facing pages can easily become tangled and damaged, just by virtue of opening and closing the album or by not being careful enough while turning its pages. Interleaving will help prevent this from happening too.

But many (perhaps most) stamp collectors don't use interleaving in their stamp albums, even if they have double-sided pages. Although interleaving definitely has its positive points, it has a bad side too. First of all, because interleaving involves adding additional pages, a fully-interleaved stamp album will be almost double the thickness and weight of the same album without interleaving. You'll need twice as many binders (which can be expensve), and you'll need twice as much room to store your collection. It also takes a lot of time to dis-assemble a stamp album and insert interleaving between every page. And glassine interleaving, although not terribly costly, is an additional expense. It also darkens with age, and after around 20 years it may well need to be replaced.

Before you decide to interleave or not, consider this information and what type of stamps you collect. If you only collect very inexpensive stamps interleaving probably isn't worth the bother or expense. But if you collect more expensive stamps, you may just want to consider either interleaving your double-sided stamp album or, alternatively, migrating your stamp collection to single-sided album pages, which don't need interleaving and just may, in the long run, be cheaper.

Choosing the Best Stamp Album


All right. You've begun your stamp collection, accumulating stamps wherever you find them, and maybe even making a stamp purchase or two. But right now, all your stamps are in a shoebox. What's a new stamp collector to do?

It's true, a shoe box will provide storage. But it's not the safest way to store your stamps, and it's not exactly the way you'd like to display them, either. Shoeboxes hold a ton of stamps, but when you use a shoe box, you run the risk of damaging your stamps: creases, bent corners, perforation damage and the like are all too common in shoebox collections. Your stamps will lose value as well as much of their beauty. Stamp albums are the solution, providing safe storage as well as a beautiful way to present your stamp collection.

Many types of stamp albums are available. You can begin with a "beginner's stamp album," but you don't need to stick with it forever: if you and your stamp collection require it, you can graduate from a beginner album to a nicer, more comprehensive stamp album. Your beginner stamp album may even consist of homemade album pages in a spiral or three-ring binder, but we suggest one of the albums printed by commercial album publishers: the paper used for the album pages is heavier in weight and better able to support the stamps without ripping, tearing or becoming dog-eared.

If you're buying a commercially-made stamp album, don't be misled by claims that any particular stamp album is "the best:" what's best for you may be a lot different from what might be best for a very advanced stamp collector. Good but inexpensive beginner stamp albums are available; most feature stamp illustrations to show you where to mount the stamps, and some even provide additional information about the stamps.

Keep in mind, while selecting a stamp album, that some types may present problems. The most notable of these problems is caused by double-sided album pages, meaning albums where stamps are intended to be mounted on both sides of each page, front and back. When the album is closed, the stamps on the front of one page have a tendency to become tangled with the stamps on the back of the facing page, and they may even tear off the page when pages are turned or the book is opened or closed. It's best to buy a stamp album designed for stamps to only be mounted on one side of each page. But these can be more expensive, so you may be forced to use a doubled-sided album for your collection. If that's the case, invest in some good-quality interleaving or plastic sheet protectors: they'll prevent stamps from tangling.

Your stamp album should consist of quality, fairly heavyweight, acid-free paper: flimsy paper just will not stand up, and an album made of lightweight pages will end up not being a whole lot better than a shoebox. If you have a specialty stamp collection or you just don't like the way commercially-printed stamp albums look, you can make your own stamp album pages, but make sure you use acid-free paper to protect your stamps from discoloration caused by chemicals in the paper itself.

Choosing the best stamp album is an individual decision, and you're the only person who can decide which one is best for you. But think before you buy, don't jump at the first album you see. But don't be too concerned if you make the wrong decision or if you decide to "upgrade" later - you can always use your album for temporary storage or for storing your duplicate stamps. Any stamp album is better than a shoebox!

How to Use Stamp Hinges


Knowing how to hinge stamps into an album is an almost essential talent for all stamp collectors. Stamp hinges are the cheapest, easiest and most popular method to hold stamps in place on album pages. Typically they are are tissue-thin, semi-transparent or translucent small slips of paper that are gummed on one side. This thin layer of gum is activated by moisture, either saliva or water (but not too much!) Stamp hinges are very inexpensive, especially when compared to stamp mounts, and are perfect for beginning stamp collectors and even seasoned collectors who want to mount used stamps.



Most are sold pre-folded and creased along the fold line. With pre-folded hinges, about a quarter or a third of the hinge is folded over onto itself so that the gummed portion faces out. The crease helps the hinged stamp lay flat on the album page. The shorter portion is the stamp side, and the longer portion is adhered to the album page. Today's stamp hinges are usually considered "peelable," meaning that their gum will adhere to the stamp and the album page with just enough strength to hold the stamp to the page, but will peel away from both if required and tongs are properly used.



Here's some instructions for how to hinge a stamp:



1. Moisten the shorter side of the hinge (the portion that's folded over) and gently press it against the center portion of the upper part of the back of the stamp. Then moisten a small portion of the larger side of the hinge down toward the end (away from the folded-over part). Don't moisten any other part of the hinge: if you moisten the entire hinge, you won't be able to flip the stamp up without damaging its top perforations, so just lick a small part of it. A tiny amount of moisture is all you need, and all you want.



2. Press the longer portion of the hinge onto the album page where you want the stamp to be placed. Hold the stamp away at a 90 degree angle while you're doing this.



3. Always guard against excess moisture on the hinges and drops of moisture falling on the stamp or the album page. If you use the proper amount of moisture you shouldn't have much of a problem with this, but make sure you remove any excess moisture immediately.




That's it - now you know how to use stamp hinges to mount stamps into an album. It actually sounds a bit more complicated than it is, and once you get the hang of it - which should only take a few times - you'll hinge like a pro!

What kinds of stamps are there?

There are several different types of stamps—for example, commemorative, definitive (sometimes called "regular" stamps), and special stamps. There are also several different formats for stamps, such as sheets, booklets, and coils. Stamps may be the conventional adhesive type ("lick-and-stick") or self-adhesive ("no-lick, peel-and-stick").

Definitive stamps are the most common. Generally small in size, they are printed in huge quantities (the same stamp is printed often in the billions), and often more than once. They often feature the head of an important person (such as a dead President) or some other symbol that is identified with the issuing country, like its coat of arms.

Commemorative stamps, are generally larger and more colorful than definitives, are printed in smaller quantities and are typically printed only once. They honor people, events, or subjects of importance to the issuing country's life and culture.

Special stamps—Christmas and Love, Holiday stamps (such as Christmas, New Years, Hanukkah, etc.), international rate, Priority Mail, Express Mail—usually are on sale for only a limited period of time.

Back of the Book stamps - airmail or air post stamps, semi-postal or charity stamps, postage dues, parcel post, registered mail stamps, revenue stamps and others. Called Back of the Book stamps or BOB stamps due to their typical location in most stamp albums.

Taking Proper Care of Your Stamp Collection

There are a number of different ways that you can use to store or display your stamps. These methods include:

stamp albums
stock books or stock pages
envelopes
boxes (the famous shoebox, not recommended!)

We recommend that you use either stamp albums or stock books/pages.

Loose stamps are very fragile and they are too easily damaged in envelopes or boxes. If you do choose to use envelopes, you should use paper envelopes of archival quality to avoid problems. Glassine envelopes are ok for very short-term storage but they are not intended for long-term use and will eventually damage stamps.

But no matter how you keep your stamps, they should always be stored in a way that protects them from excessive heat and humidity. This means keeping your stamps in an air conditioned environment during hot weather. You may also want to consider de-humidifying the air if humidity is high.

Stamps also should always be protected from direct sunlight - strong sunlight can cause colors to fade.

Excessive heat - whether it originates from strong sunlight or the room is just too hot - can cause softening of the gum on stamps. This sometimes results in a stamp "licking itself" to whatever is beneath it. Heat can also cause other damage to the gum.

Albums, stock books and stock pages should always be stored upright (not flat and horizontal) as the weight of the pages can also cause stamps to stick down. Leaf through the pages of your stamp albums and stock books from time to time - this "airs out" the stamps and is very healthy for them.

Generally, you should use album pages that are designed for stamps to be mounted or hinged on only one side, not both sides. When stamps are mounted on both sides of an album page, they sometimes "grab" each other and become torn or dislodged when pages are turned.

Don't drink any kind of liquid - water, coffee, soft drinks, etc - when near your stamps. Liquids are the enemies of stamps, especially mint stamps. Any sort of liquid will either damage or entirely remove the gum from a mint stamp.

Stamp Hinges vs. Stamp Mounts Revisited

A few months ago we did a four-part post that discussed the relative merits - and disadvantages - of using stamp hinges and stamp mounts in stamp collections.

Well, we recently came across a great idea (although a bit more expensive than using mounts or hinges) so we thought we'd pass it along.

One of the disadvantages of stamp mounts that we discussed was that it is sometimes difficult to remove a mount from a stamp album page without damaging the page itself.

In short, the idea is this: place your stamps inside stamp mounts. Then, instead of licking the back of the mount and adhering it to the album page directly, use one or more stamp hinges to do that. In other words, hinge the mount to the album page.

Using the stamp mount protects the gum of the stamp, and using the stamp hinge to attach the mount to the page protects your album pages - the best of both worlds!

The only downside that we see for those who use stamp mounts already is a slightly increased cost - but it's negligible because stamp hinges are so inexpensive.

This great idea was published in the December 3, 2007 edition of Linn's Stamp News, contributed by a reader in the "Reader's Opinions" section. Thanks, reader!