Heritage Auctions Chief Cataloger Mark Van Winkle was kind enough to send me the auction house's Style Sheet (of 35 pages) after its mention on The E-Sylum a few weeks back. I'm a style rules junkie in the numismatic field (should "mint mark" be spelled one word or two? -- most everybody prefers one!).

But I learned a new word or two among those hundreds of recommendations. One word was "pinscratch." I don't remember ever having encountered it before. Heritage recommends it as one word. I like that. It is an excelled term for obviously the lightest scratches on a numismatic item.. A reader does not need a college degree to understand exactly what it means.

My first thought was "how does it differ from hairline"? Then it dawned on me. Hairline is a thin raised line from a crack in the die. Pinscratch is a tiny trench in the surface of a numismatic item. A complete opposite. No relation at all, other than their wispy nature.

Another term new to me was "faceplates" when describing Kellogg and Humbert gold pieces (page 22). I can guess what it means. I prefer a more precise definition from one of our more knowledgeable readers. What's a faceplate on a gold piece?

I have style sheets from the American Numismatic Society, Coin World, and now Heritage. If your organization has such a document, would you mind sharing it with me? I get my jollies from reading such numismatic esoterica. dick.johnson@snet.net