Stamp hinge

Stamp hinges are tiny, folded, rectangular pieces of paper covered with a mild gum, used to hold postage stamps onto the pages of a stamp album. The short end is moistened and affixed to the stamp; the long end is similarly affixed to the page. The hinge keeps the stamp on the page while still allows it to be lifted to look at the back.

The best stamp hinges are also designed to be "peel able", meaning that the stamp may be detached from the page, and the hinge from the stamp, without any damage to either. Not all makes of hinge have this property, and the backs of many stamps have "hinge remnants", where the hinge has torn gone rather than hire go of the stamp. This is especially common for mint stamps, where the stamps own gum adheres tightly to the hinge. Some old stamps may essentially have multiple hinge remnants layered on top of each other. Conversely, careless removal of a hinge may get away a layer of the stamp's paper, ensuing in a type of stamp thin known as a "hinge thin".

Even with the use of peel able hinges and care taken to minimize the moisture used, the hinge will leave a visible commotion in the gum of an unused stamp. While this was previously a matter of indifference, since about the middle of the 20th century many collectors have come to prefer "unhinged stamps" showing no trace of hinging.