stamp collecting tools

While tongs, hinges and mounts are the general tools of the stamp collecting hobby, they need to be complimented with other equipment including: Glassine (glass-een) envelopes which are used to store and keep stamps that you have yet to add to your album. Glassine is a special thin paper that keeps grease and air from damaging stamps. A stamp catalog is a handy reference with many illustrations that can help identify stamps; and it also provides information such as values for used and unused stamps. A magnifying glass helps examine stamps. A perforation guage measures the jagged cuts or little holes, called perforations, along the edge of stamps. Size and number of perforations are sometimes needed to identify stamps. Perforations or "Perfs", as they are commonly known to stamp collectors, make stamps easy to tear apart. A water tray and watermark fluid are used to make more visible the designs or patterns (called watermarks) that are pressed into some stamp paper during manufacture.