ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

A brief description of Conventions
used in the stamp catalog and other 
relevant information to understand the 
reference catalog:
* Color is mentioned in the stamp
description for all early stamps, since
several stamps are identical except for
their color.
* Proofs, Essays and Trail colors are
not included in the catalog.
* Special Printings are included.
* Some stamps that look similar are
repeated several times with different
Scott numbers for the following reasons:

The stamps were issued as coils,
booklets, without gum, different paper,
different perforations, with or without
watermark, different image sizes (due to
different process of printing). In some
cases the variation in design is very
hard to see without a magnifying glass.
Most of these variations are visible in
the full screen image of the stamp.


BOOKLET STAMPS: All Booklet stamps 
are included.

BOOKLET PANES: Nearly all the Booklet 
Panes are included.

COIL STAMPS: Coil stamps are included. 

DATE OF ISSUE: The date the stamp was
issued. For a few stamps the date of
issue is not accurately known. These
stamps have a date of issue followed by
a single character. For example the date
of issue may be followed by (M) or (Y).
The meaning of these characters is:
(M) Date of issue accurate only to the
month
 (Y) Date of issue accurate only to the
Year
(A) Date of issue is approximate
(*) Date of known first use, since the
date of issue is not known or available.

FACE VALUE: The face value is the value
printed on the stamp. In case of blocks
of  4 and for booklets the total face
value of that block or the booklet pane
is listed.

NUMBERS IN THE STAMP DESCRIPTION: Some
stamp descriptions have a stamp number
in the bracket, for example George
Washington (#235). This means the
current stamp is similar in design to
stamp #235 except for minor differences.

PRICES: The prices mentioned in the
inventory program are for Very Fine
stamps. These prices are given for your
convenience as default values and no
decisions to buy or sell must be based
on these values. For accurate market
values please refer to standard
catalogues for prices.


ABBREVIATIONS
   Aca.     - Academy
   Adm.    - Admiral
   Amer.    - American
   Anniv.    - Anniversary
   Bicenten.   - Bicentennial
   Bklt.    - Booklet
   Capt.     - Captain
   Commiss.   - Commission
   Communi.   - Communications
   Conser.     - Conservation
   Constit.    - Constitution
   Exhib.    - Exhibition
   Exped.     - Expedition
   Explora.    - Exploration
   Ft.     - Fort
   Horz.    - Horizontally
   Imperf.     - Imperforate
   Indepen.    - Independence
   Int.    - International
   Iss.    - Issue
   Mem.     - Memorial
   Mississ.    - Mississippi
   Mt.     - Mount
   Nat.    - National
   Omit.   - Omitted
   Org.    - Organization
   Pennsyl.    - Pennsylvania
   Perf.    - Perforation
   Precan.    - Precancelled
   Revol.    - Revolution
   Self-Adhe.  - Self-Adhesive
   Sen.    - Senator
   Sesqui.    - Sesquicentennial
   Souv.    - Souvenir
   Sp.    - Special
   S.S.    - Souvenir Sheet
   Tercen.     - Tercentenary
   Ty.    - Type
   Vert.    - Vertical
   Uni.    - Universal
   Unwmk.     - Unwatermarked
   Wmk.     - Watermark
   Wmkd.    - Watermarked
   WW     - World War
   w/o     - without gum


ABBREVIATIONS OF COLORS
   Blk.   - black
   Brn.   - brown
   Gre.   - green
   Org.   - orange
   Pur.   - purple
   Ver.   - vermilion
   Vio.   - violet
   Yel.   - yellow

