What Does Hinged Mean In Stamp Collecting?

Like many hobbies, stamp collecting has a language of its own and there are a variety of abbreviations and phrases that are used which only a stamp collector would be familiar with — one of these phrases is hinged.

So what does hinged mean and what significance does it play?

Quite simply, a stamp hinge is a small piece of gummed paper that is folded in half and enables a stamp to be mounted in an album. Hinged stamps are stamps that have had a hinge applied to them at some point. This means that the gum on the back of the stamp has been stuck to something. When the hinge is removed, there may be some disruption to the glue on the back of the stamp and this can affect its value.

Gum is an important factor in determining a stamp’s value. For some collectors the state of that gum and making sure that it has not been damaged in any way is of crucial importance. When you become involved in stamp collecting and start to understand its terminology then you start to see the significance that hinged stamps can have on the overall value of a collection. Here are some common terms that you are likely to come across when stamp collections are being described:

NH — Never hinged — The stamp has never had a hinge applied to it.

H — Hinged — The gum has had a hinge applied to it.

LH — Lightly hinged — The gum has had a hinge applied, but the mark left is very small or light.

HH — Heavily hinged — The gum has been hinged and the mark left is very large and prominent.

HR — Hinge Remnant — The gum has had a hinge applied to it and a part of the hinge was so difficult to remove that it still attached to the stamp.

DG — Disturbed gum — The gum has been damaged in some way other than being hinged.

NG — No gum — The stamp is unused and has no gum.

RG — Re-gummed — The stamp has had new gum applied to it in place of the original gum. This is sometimes done to try and deceive buyers into believing they are buying an original gum, never hinged stamp.

MNH — Mint or Mint Never Hinged — Mint means the stamp is in new condition, as it was when it was purchased from the Post Office.

When you look at a stamp collection you are able to place stamps into these various categories to determine their quality and ultimately their value.