Chats on Postage Stamps

by Frederick John Melville

In the case of imperforate stamps it is desirable always to have as large margins round the printed impression as possible; while in all perforated stamps one should endeavour to secure well-centred copies—that is to say, copies in which the printed impression falls evenly between the perforations on all four sides.

These are the chief desiderata for the general collector. They read rather portentously; but the cult of condition comes by practice to all who have the true love of stamps, for if stamps are worth collecting at all they are worthy of our best endeavours to keep them in the pink of condition. "It is part of the decency of scholars," says Richard de Bury, "that whenever they return from meals to their study, washing should invariably precede reading, and that no grease-stained finger should unfasten the clasps or turn the leaves of a book"; it should be no less a part of the decency of the philatelist, and in the case of his treasures the true lover of stamps will not neglect the merest trifles which will perpetuate the perfect preservation of his specimens.

The use of the stamp-hinge or mount is simple, and, with proper care, perfectly effective. It is a small strip of paper gummed on the one side for folding in the form of a hinge, the gummed surface being on the outside of the hinge when folded. One arm of the hinge is lightly affixed to the top back, or right side of the back of the stamp, the other portion being fixed to the album. The slightest touch of moisture is sufficient for the purpose. The best hinges are stamped with a die out of a kind of onion-skin paper, are semi-transparent, and evenly coated on the one side with a colourless mucilage. In folding for use, the hinge should be formed of a long arm for the album—say, two-thirds of the hinge—and a short one—one-third—for the stamp. The short arm should be applied quite close to the top or side (top mounting is the more general), so that in turning up a stamp for examination there is no creasing of the upper part of the stamp. The process should be manipulated with the tweezers, so that the stamp is never fingered, and in smoothing down the page of mounted stamps a clean blotter should be used.

There can be no doubt that repeatedly mounting a stamp, even if carefully done by a practised hand, has a cumulative detrimental effect on the specimens. The temptation to use the convenient digit is present on every occasion, and even the cleanest finger must make some—perhaps infinitesimal—mark on the face; multiply this by, say, seven times, and the stamp, from being "mint," becomes merely "unused," and so on until after the proverbial seventy times seven the stamp would come within the category of "soiled." So, too, with each successive remounting, unless the first mount be preserved intact (as is possible with good "peelable" mounts handled with care), through a succession of removals of the stamp there is a loss of the gum which is part of the stamp, and in the various stages this becomes a skinned, or "thinned," copy.

A stamp is a tender, delicate thing—especially if "chalky"—and should be handled as little as possible, whether common, scarce, or rare; in fact, the old Latin proverb, Maxima debetur pueris reverentia, might well be parodied, if one knew the Latin for stamps. Care, coolness (physical), and cleanliness are necessary attributes of the ideal collector, and even he would do well to use tweezers instead of fingers; but if he must use a finger, let him interpose a piece of tissue or blotting paper between it and the stamp.

The best peelable mounts are good; but the ideal mount which, once affixed to the back of the stamp, need never be removed therefrom has yet to be manufactured. I will hand on a suggestion for the ideal mount, a little troublesome to adopt in the first instance, but which well repays a little extra initial trouble in the preservation of the stamps, and which even saves trouble in the event of "removals."

Imagine a mount, of standard size, and of very thin tough paper, manufactured from linen rags to give it a long fibre, to be sold ready folded, but gummed only on the upper part above the fold; this is fixed in the usual way to the stamp.

Accompanying each mount are several narrow (say, ¹/₈ in.) slips of similar paper, gummed at the extreme ends, and as long as the mount is wide.

Cut into the mount are two vertical slits—thin pieces punched out, not mere cuts—immediately below the fold, one about ³/₁₆ in. from each edge of the mount. Insert one of the narrow slips, so that the two gummed ends are at the back of, but away from, the mount; slightly moisten each of these gummed tips—instead of, as usual, the back of the mount—and fasten the stamp on the page of the album as if the hinge were of the ordinary make; the stamp will be fixed just as firmly as if the mount were fastened to the page by a square inch of gummed back.

When it is desired to move the stamp, a snip with a pair of small scissors will sever the narrow slip where it crossed the upper side of the mount, which will then pull off from the two pieces. To remount use a fresh narrow slip.