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Ideas and Tips for Displaying Your Collectible Stamps
Stamps
purchased from The Collectible Stamps Gallery are shipped in
either clear archival "PolyPro" sleeves (for larger stamp
sheets) or
acid-free collection cards (crystal clear film over card
stock). Occasionally, we will ship very large items in
acid-free glassine envelopes. Each of the above are perfectly suitable for long-term
safe storage. You may, however, find a preferable stamp
display method among the ideas discussed below. Many of
the mentioned display supplies are available from us at
attractive prices; where this is the case, the item is
highlighted and underlined when first described. You can
navigate to the appropriate supply category page by clicking
on the highlighted word (links to our supply
categories are also located near the bottom of the left-hand
navigation bar).
The following "main topic" links can be used to
quickly navigate to
that topic in the discussion below:
Safely
handling and storing your stamps.
Postage stamps, being fairly thin paper, can be torn, creased, or stained if not carefully
handled. Stamps can be handled with your hands or
fingers (carefully), but it is best if you first wash your
hands (to remove dirt and natural oils) and make sure they are
dry. Stamp collectors often use
stamp tongs to handle stamps whenever possible to reduce the risk of
damage. Stamp tongs have polished rounded tips and are
specially designed for picking up and holding postage stamps.
Using tongs to handle stamps may be an awkward process at
first, but you will likely soon find that moving stamps around
with tongs is much easier than with your fingers. Standard tweezers with sharp and/or ridged tips should not be
used because they can crease or cut fragile stamp paper.
Stamps, and display albums holding stamps, should be stored
in an environment where humidity and temperature are kept at
reasonable and fairly constant levels. High heat and
humidity can cause the adhesive on the back of stamps to stick
to whatever is adjacent. For this reason, attics, crawl
spaces, and
storage buildings without climate control are not good
places for storing your collection of stamps.
High pressure can also cause stamps to stick to album pages
or other adjacent paper. This
situation can arise when your stamps or albums are placed
under a stack of heavy books, for example. It is best to store
your albums or stock pages containing stamps upright.
Lastly, stamps should be kept out of direct
sunlight; sunlight will eventually cause a noticeable fading
of the colors on stamps.
If you plan to frame your stamps, it is best to use glass that
provides protection from ultraviolet (UV) light.
Display Ideas
Stamp
Display Pages ("Stockpages")
Stockpages
are
excellent for both safely storing and attractively displaying
your collection. The stockpages offered by The
Collectible Stamps Gallery are rigid with a black vinyl
background and crystal clear pockets on both sides (they are
free of chemical softeners, so your stamps will be safe).
These double-sided pages are 8.5" x 11" and hole-punched to
fit standard 3-ring or European 4-ring binders. The
clear pockets hold stamps firmly in place, yet the stamps can
be moved easily from one location to another as your
collection grows and evolves. The pages are available
with one through eight rows of pockets (sizes 1 through 8);
fewer rows equals larger pocket height. The exact pocket
measurements are indicated in the
Display Pages product description. Note that we list the
measurements of the stamps and souvenir sheets offered on our
site- you can simply match the stamp/sheet measurement with
the pocket measurement, but keep in mind that it would be best
to choose pocket sizes a bit larger than the stamps so that
they will be fully protected (if your stamps extend above the
height of the pocket, you can provide added protection by
simply placing a sheet of acid-free paper between adjacent
stockpages).
While we do
offer very nice binders
for these pages, any 3-ring
or 4-ring binder designed for 8.5" x 11" pages would work just fine. Two
quality 3-ring binder styles (each in multiple colors) are
currently offered by The Collectible Stamps Gallery: a padded
"Prince" binder with matching dustcase, and a leather-look
"Nassau" binder with matching dustcase. Each
style features deep-grained imitation leather and a
gold-embossed spine and holds 8.5" x 11" 3-hole-punched pages (approximately 40-45 stockpage capacity).
An
alternative to these specialized stockpages,
especially for larger items, is to simply insert the stamps/sheets into archival clear sheet protectors; these are
relatively inexpensive and available at office supply stores
(Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, etc.). It would be
best to first insert a sheet of heavy-weight paper or card
stock into the sleeve to provide added stiffness and
protection.
Souvenir sheet and small stamp
pane album
"Collector Series" albums
have been specially designed for larger stamp collectibles
(though all items that would fit in these albums would also
fit in stockpages with large pockets as described above).
The albums feature both attractive
Collector Series
binders
with a padded vinyl
covering and
Collector Series pages constructed of museum quality archival PolyPro film. For the display of souvenir sheets and
larger stamp collectibles, you may find these pages to be more
economical than stockpages. Smaller stamps would likely
move around quite a bit in these page pockets, but they could
be left in glassine envelopes or collection cards and inserted
into the pockets. The 87/8"
x 9" pages are 15 mil thick (thinner and much less rigid than
the stockpages described in the above section) with jet-black
backgrounds and are double-sided (pockets on both sides).
A vertical
seam protects stamps/sheets/envelopes from drifting into the
binder rings. We currently offer pages with either two
pockets per side (each pocket measures 108mm tall by 183mm
wide) or one pocket per side (each pocket measures 223mm tall
by 190mm wide). The pages do require a special
"Collector Series" binder (10" x 91/2"
x 21/4"), though it is an
attractive padded and gold-stamped binder that holds up to 50
two-sided pages. Available binder colors are blue,
charcoal grey, and wine-red.
Photo albums
Photo albums with pocket-type pages
would work just fine for displaying souvenir sheets, though
you are limited by the available pocket sizes. Be
careful with those photo album pages that are coated with a
tacky substance that prevents photos from moving- this will
eventually stick tightly, even permanently, to stamps.
Although we have not tried the following for long-term storage, placing
a sheet of card stock (slightly larger than the stamps / stamp
sheet) between the stamps and the tacky substance- with the
clear plastic overlay keeping the stamps in place- may work
well.
Homemade stamp album
pages
Many collectors design their own
stamp collection pages. These pages can be
hand-drawn/written, or designed with a computer software
program (Adobe PageMaker, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher,
etc.). You will want to use acid-free paper so that the
pages do not eventually discolor- the chemical change that
causes this can affect stamps as well. Except for
cheaper quality papers (such as cheap copy paper and newsprint
paper), most papers manufactured today are acid-free.
Heavy weight paper will yield a nicer and more durable album
page: examples are Wausau Premium Card Stock (65 lb.),
Wausau Exact Bristol (67 lb.), and Wausau Exact Index (110
lb.). These and similar good quality papers are
available in a variety of colors at office supply stores (such
as Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples).
Your album pages can either be
hole-punched or inserted into clear sheet protectors (with
3-ring holes in the margin); add a nice binder and you are all
set.
Attractive and high quality papers can also be found at
Scrapbooking stores and many general craft stores. In
fact, a scrapbooking album would serve well as an album for
displaying your stamp collectibles (perhaps together with your
other paper collectibles or artwork).
Mounting Postage Stamps
For
mounting stamps on album pages, card stock, etc., we offer crystal
clear archival
mounting corners
(nice for souvenir sheets and other stamp sheets or stamped
envelopes), crystal clear
stamp mounts
(perfect for mounting
individual stamps and all but very large stamp
sheets; not for envelopes), and
stamp hinges (for individual
stamps or smaller stamp sheets).
The
mounting corners have a
permanent self-stick acrylic (archival) adhesive on the back
and a triangular pocket for insertion of a stamp sheet corner
(you will need one for each corner).
Stamp
mounts are available from philately suppliers in a
large variety of types and sizes. The Collectible Stamps
Gallery supplies a high quality brand (Hawid) that is crystal
clear, easy to use without damaging your stamps, and permits
re-cutting to a desired size without affecting the integrity
of the mount. The mounts consist of two sheets of
oriented polystyrene foil welded together along one edge
(mounts greater than 63mm in height are welded on both the top
and bottom edge); the
bottom of the stamp or stamp sheet rests against this
transparent welded edge. The foil contains no agent that
is harmful to stamps and will not shrink or discolor.
The mounts are supplied in strips that are pre-gummed
(moisture-activated adhesive) on the entire back. Using
either a small paper cutter or a straight edge and razor blade (or Exacto-type knife), the
mounts can be trimmed at the sides and top (scissors can also
be used for trimming, but it may be
difficult to obtain a perfectly straight edge with scissors).
Stamp mounts are a good option when mounting corners are not
acceptable (e.g., for individual stamps, for framing projects,
or for appearance reasons) and you would like to keep
your mint stamps or stamp sheets with pristine gum in unhinged
(see below) condition. Note that the back side of the
mount and the stamp/stamp sheet will lie flat against the
page, while the top side of the mount may not lie completely
flat against the stamp or stamp sheet. Despite the
very slightly raised top side, stamps will be held securely in
place- they will not shift around during normal album handling
or page turning.
For some applications, you may want
the top side of the mount to lie completely flat as well; to accomplish
this, we offer a
fine-tipped glue pen (archival
quality adhesive; similar glue pens may be found at craft
stores). Using a straight edge, a fine line of glue may
be applied to the mount above the top of the stamp(s), so that it
is located between the two mount halves. The top side of
the mount is then pressed against this line of adhesive.
The stamp/stamp sheet can still be removed, and re-inserted,
via the open sides of the mount. Additional lines of glue on
the sides of the mount will completely secure the stamp within
the mount (this may be desired for framed stamps, for
example) but be sure to leave a couple gaps in these glue
lines to prevent the trapping of condensation.
Stamp hinges are
small pieces of pre-folded glassine paper with a water-activated adhesive on one side. One part of the
fold is lightly moistened (with tongue or damp sponge), then adhered to the stamp;
the other part of the fold is similarly moistened and adhered to the album
page. Larger items (e.g., souvenir sheets) may require 2
or more hinges (mounting corners are recommended for large
items). Supposedly, stamp hinges are peelable, meaning
that, after the adhesive has dried, they can be peeled off of
the stamp without damaging the stamp paper. This is
rarely true in practice so be very careful if you wish to
remove a hinge from a mint stamp; the best option may be to
leave it attached to the back of the stamp, trimming off the
non-adhered portion.
If disturbing the gum on the
back of mint stamps is not a concern and you do not care that
a stamp cannot be removed from the paper to which it is
attached (perhaps the case for framing, scrapbooking, or
other art project), you can of course lightly moisten the back
of the stamp (or simply peel and stick self-adhesive stamps)
and use the stamp's own adhesive for mounting.
Framing postage stamps
Being miniature works of art,
stamps and stamp sheets that are matted and framed can look
great hanging on a
wall. Framing projects may involve a single stamp in a
miniature frame (a nice small scale building or doll house
idea), a large selection of stamps, or stamps together with
collateral memorabilia or artwork. Any of the postage stamp mounting techniques mentioned above could be applied
for stably mounting the stamps, though the use of clear stamp
mounts is a popular method for mint stamps.
The easiest approach to framing
stamps, though likely also the most expensive, is to mount
your stamps and collateral material with a pleasing
arrangement on heavy-weight paper or card stock and to then
have a professional framer complete the matting and framing
work. Whether you decide to take this route, or to do
all of the work yourself, a visit to the website
Framing4yourself.com would be beneficial (link provided
below). This is the best framing web site we have come
across; it is loaded with tips and instructional guides.
Framing4yourself.com
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