hinges- to remove or not to remove?

When I remove a used hinged stamp, being careful to pull from the page and not from the stamp to avoid a thin in the stamp, I toss the stamp in the "to be soaked" envelope. If I remove a mint hinged stamp from a page, again pulling from the page, I then use a sharp blade to cut off the loose hinge portion from the back of the stamp and leave it in that condition, mint hinged with remnant of hinge still attached to the back of the stamp.


Some people will carefully apply water moisture with a cue-tip to the hinge remnant and usually it will eventually cause the hinge remnant to come loose, but there will be a telltale disturbance of the gum when this is done. Many collectors seem to be unable to spot this gum disturbance, and may assume the stamp grades as MNH when in fact it is actually a MH stamp, and therefore should have a corresponding reduction in value. I leave the remnant on so there is no question from other collectors when trading or selling of the true condition of the stamp.

Hi

I use spade tip tongs in most cases. With those I carefully rub the hinge a little. The resulting "heat" seems to loosen the hinge gum and the hinge, in most cases, is easier to remove. If the hinge doesn't want to release, then leave it alone, especially with a mint stamp. Also, if the stamp is on an album page, I rub the back of the page to loosen the hinge. Once off the page, I then use the aforementioned process.

Jerry B