Abbreviations & Symbols

                Symbols               Abbreviations

              **   Mint unhinged    NH    never hinged
                                    
              *    Mint             OG    original gum
                                    VLH   very lightly hinged
                                    LH    lightly hinged
                                    HR    hinge remnant
                                    HH    heavily hinged
                                    FOG   fingerprint on gum
                                    PA    paper adherence on gum
                                    NPI   natural paper inclusion
                                    DG    disturbed gum

              (*)  mint (unused)    UN    no gum or regummed
                                                    
              o    used             cds    circular date stamp
                                    Lcds   light cds
                                    cxl    cancel
                                    LC     light cancel
                                    VLC    very light cancel
                                    CC     corner cancel
                                    LCC    light corner cancel
                                    SON    socked-on-the-nose
                                    CTO    canceled to order
                                    pce    piece (of paper)

              C    Cover            cvr    cover
                                    F/L    folded letter

              Bk   Book
              F    forgery
              S    specimen
              sx   supplies


             Grading Abbreviations & Explanations
             
             VF      Very Fine, top quality and centered
                       above average quality

             F/VF    Fine to Very Fine, somewhere in between Fine and VF
                       average quality for modern issues

             F       Fine plus, better than Fine
            
             Fine    Fine, centered within perfs and no faults
                       average quality for late 19th century and
                       turn-of-the-century issues

             just-F  just-Fine, quite off centre, but still Fine

             VG      Very Good, perfs cut design on margin,
                       possibly short perfs, heavier cancel,
                       average for many 19th century issues

             G       Good, reserved for classic issues, sound,
                       small imperfections, shorts perfs, cancel, etc.

             SF      Spacefiller, stamp with faults, that may not be
                       immediately visible, thus an inexpensive way
                       to fill that empty space


             Conventions

             Please consider...
              all blocks to be blocks of 4
              all pairs to be horizontal
              all mint stamps to have original gum (unless marked unused)
                 while ungummed stamps are issued without gum       

             When used between catalogue numbers....
               -   complete series, ie: every stamp is there
              //   incomplete series, ie: stamp(s) missing

            As the auction is conducted in Canadian Funds
              ($ 1 Cdn equivalent to approximately .90 US Dollar)
              all stated catalogue values are also converted to Cdn Funds.



             Catalogue Abbreviations

             Mi   Michel
             Sc   Scott 
             SG   Stanley Gibbons
             Uni  Unitrade Canada Specialized
             Y&T  Yvert and Tellier
           

             General Abbreviations

             alm   almost 
             bklt  booklet
             blk   block
             BOB   Back of Book
             cxl  cancel
             flt   fault
             lg    large
             lt    light
             marg  margin
             MS    matched sets of PB's
             M/S   mini-sheet
             o/w   otherwise
             perf  perforation
             PB    plate block
             PP    pulled perf (below perf hole)
             pr    pair
             SE    straight edge
             sl    slight
             sm    small
             SP    short perf (above perf hole)
             S/S   souvenir sheet
             var   variety
             w/    with
             w/o   without