The ABC’s of Displaying Your Stamps: Paper, Plastic, or Glassine

Until the 1960’s glassine was one of the mainstays of stamp collection display materials. It, however, is not acid-free and has very small amounts of sulfuric acid in it that can damage your stamps. These days there are specialty acid-free papers that can be bought that will not hurt them. Japanese rice paper can also be used, but this can be expensive.

Collectors, for the most part only put stamps on one side of a page. This is because it provides the best protection, though it does mean you need more pages and binders to keep your stamp collection in. The reason for putting stamps on one page only is because you get more tearing and scratching of the surface of a stamp when you have stamps facing each other, as opposed to just touching a blank sheet of paper.

To display individual stamps, because of cost, people will sometimes use plastic sleeves as an alternative to glassine, but with time and humidity, these can stick together and sometimes will stick to your stamp, so plastic is not a very good choice. Other materials like Mylar are good, but they are expensive and so not many people use them.

The best of all mediums for preserving your stamps is glass or some special types of plastic, but as we note above, this is too expensive and takes up too much room for people with more than just a few really precious stamps that they want to preserve.

Like any work of art, you must keep your stamps out of direct sunlight where UV will fade them. The same can be said of some types of strong house lighting.

Wecome to County Stamp Center. Take a Minute to Get to Know Us and See What We Can Do for You

County Stamp Center has been around for a while, but you may be new to our site and wonder who we are. County Stamp Center is well known in the stamp collecting business and has a stellar reputation with our customers and peers for the quality and scope of our product, our integrity as a dealer, our superior customer service, and our discounted prices.

County Stamp Center is a new issue stamp dealer offering a full range of services to collectors:

• We provide stamp collection values from all over the world.
• We sell new issue foreign stamps. In fact, we are one of a very select international group of foreign stamp new issuers.
• We find, sell and appraise foreign stamps.
• We find difficult to obtain stamps, rare stamps, topicals, classics, etc. We can find whatever you need to complete and organize your stamp collection.
• We perform professional appraisals of stamp collections.
• We buy stamps and collections, paying top dollar for unusual, rare and hard to find stamps.
• We sell quality stamp collecting and display supplies.

Visit the County Stamp Center website to peruse our vast collection of more than 40,000 issues. You'll discover that it's easy to find what you're looking for at County Stamp Center.

• You can search for stamps by category, key word or Scotts catalog number. Use our unique Quick Search feature in the upper right corner of our website to find stamps fast.
• Sign up for our monthly eNewsletter. You'll get fast access to all the new issues and be invited to take advantage of bargain prices on specially featured stamps. Just enter your email address and name in the space in the right-hand column of our home page.
• Enter our monthly contest to win free prizes.
• Order supplies and display albums for your collections.
• For great savings frequent our eBay auction.
• Keep your collections up-to-date by registering for our handy subscription service. We'll automatically reserve new issues for you so you don't miss a single new stamp in your field of interest.
• Contact our buyer to sell your collection or individual stamps.
• We offer appraisal services on collections of all sizes, big and small.
• Earn money by becoming a County stamp Center affiliate. Click here to learn more.

County Stamp Center puts the stamp world at your fingertips. Visit our website today.

Year of the Pig a Good Omen for Stamp Collectors

Children born in the Chinese Year of the Pig are thought to be happy and honest. To have a child in the Year of the Pig is considered a favorable omen in Chinese culture where the twelfth sign of the Earthly Branches, the Pig, is associated with fertility and virility.

The Chinese Year of the Pig has generated of whole host of commemorative stamps -- from the comic to the sublime. The People's Republic of China recently issued this colorful, comic souvenir booklet. It's available at County Stamp Center for just $2.66. Click the post title to order.

In Chinese culture there are five types of pigs, named after the five Chinese elements: metal, water, wood, fire and earth. On our website you'll find Year of the Pig stamps of every stripe and color. There are cartoon pigs, gingham pigs, rainbow pigs, fanciful pigs, realistic pigs, charming pigs, wild pigs, and ethereal stylized pigs. To portray the porkers, stamp artists have used block prints, silk screens, photographs, paintings, drawings, wood cuts, even gold foil. There is such great variety, you'll want to collect them all. Click here to view our complete collection of Year of the Pig stamps.

For the latest stamp issues, visit the County Stamp Center website. Come to us for all your philatelic needs. We carry quality collecting supplies as well as thousands of fascinating stamps.