Help Crack The Code. Writing In Album, Is It Grading System

Speaking of writing in stamp albums... I just got a Scott American Album and I'm curious about some of the notes. Along with the usual Scott numbers and occasional values, the collector also made notations by most stamps that consists of 2 to 4 letters. Here are some examples: FR, FNY, FIY, CYS, AIS, FASO, CDY, FSYS...


I feel like I've seen this somewhere before, is it a grading system?

try Airline Codes etc

Possible code for purchase amounts???

What stamps were these next to? Scans?

Not airline codes; these use three letter codes, like YHZ for Halifax, NS, Canada, for airports worldwide.

I'm no code breaker, but I'd bet this is code for their purchase prices. Just use a 10 letter word with all different letters and overlay numbers 0 to 9. Put in some dummy letters to throw off code breakers, and you know what you paid. The F here is probably a dummy letter, unless it is for number 1. You might be able to break it if you can figure out about the amount they would have spent on several stamps, and the letters match up. It isn't going to change anything, because who cares what they paid, anyway. I've got my fancy code for the $450.00 I paid for my C7-9 plate blocks 30 years ago, but I'll never see that money again. Whatever...I can go to the money tree at my local Thai restaurant and pull some cash off the tree to recoup my loss --- K

Funny, purchase prices didn't even occur to me, but I think you're right. This album sometimes has notations with offer amounts. If the collector was selling from this album he wouldn't want the price right out there for everyone to see.

Assuming it is purchase price, I haven't had any time to figure out the code. I'll post a few scans if anyone is still interested, then take a look myself. I tried to get various material in here.



one with an offer price:



hope you can read the fine print...