Kathy,

I leave the hinges, regardless of unused or used stamps. I, like you, remove anything not attached to the stamp, but leave whatever's attached. I certainly wouldn't soak a hinge from a stamp with gum (unless it were a CTO), because I chage it from OG to unused.

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Hello Kathy and David,

Nice to see how different we treat our stamps. I soak any cancelled stamp to get the hinges of, and do believe this is important, specially for the elder stamps with elder hinges.

I once had a stamp where the hinge made a big glue spot on the stamp and therefor started with this.

Mind you I think it is important, but don't have any proof for that :-)

Mint stamps should never be soaked, we said it before, soak them and one must deal with them as used stamps, so I always hope the hinge will come of nicely, which most hinges luckilly do.

With best regards,

Rob.

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