Very Strange Interpretation Of "Mint"

You might get away with that definition in the USA, but not in Europe.

The meaning of mint is 'in pristine condition.' I would argue it, certainly, stops where the condition has been altered by removing the gum or where the stamp suffered damage. It would be impossible to discern used uncancelled stamps from unused stamps without gum. You can be pretty confident modern issues without gum were used.

The Netherlands and Great Britain never issued stamps without gum. The Two Pence Blue narrowly held on to being one of the first two stamps issued, because there were gumming issues. I have seen classic uncancelled British stamps without gum described as 'missed by canceller.'

You can see that the quality of the gum mattered to collectors even at the start of the 20th century from stamps that have a hinge in the margin. I have a number of those, including stamps hinged in the bottom margin. The Marquess of Bute's collection suffered water damage resulting in previously mint stamps losing their gum.

I believe these are common terms you'll find on ebay and other U.S. based platforms, including auction houses and have been used for as long as I can remember (60 years) and I believe long before that.

m = mint = unused = uncancelled
u = used = cancelled

nh = never hinged
h = hinged

hr = hinge remnant

og = original gum
ng = no gum
dg = disturbed or damaged gum
rg = regum

I do agree that ignorant people use m to refer to uncancelled and u to cancelled stamps.

However, I have never seen a reputable dealer or auction house on this site of the Atlantic Ocean purposely classify a stamp that lost its gum as mint. Nor have I seen them refer to an uncancelled stamp attached to a piece of paper as mint.

CTO stamps with original gum, generally, are identified as such and not as used.

As for the other terms, often they are added.

The various opinions on terminology are interesting but the underlying issue remains; they are all opinions and there exists no standard or universally accepted philatelic nomenclature reference. Pre-internet this probably was not as big of issue as it is now since the hobby was a bit more 'local' and certainly did not have tens of thousands of non-collectors peddling stamps. Where do non-collectors turn to find the universally accepted 'correct' terminology?

Calling non-collectors 'ignorant' is a bit strong, but it is true that they are not experienced in the hobby's terminology. It is like calling folks ignorant when they call out a stamp 'shade' when they really mean a hue. They are really just not well-versed in color terminology.
Don

I know you made the point about the use of 'shades' for 'hues.' There, however, is an enormous difference in that 'shades' is used in much philate;ic literature and thus has a common use. There are many examples of technical terms used 'incorrectly' in other fields. Most of the time, they have a well-defined application in that other field.

I also do not think that "common terms you'll find on ebay and other U.S. based platforms, including auction houses" refers only or even primarily to people that tear a stamp off aunty's letter and think they won the jackpot.

I bid with European Houses all of the time and they use terminology such as "unused without gum (*)".

Although you might question how they establish the use, the key word was not 'unused' but 'mint.'

Mint <> unused.

French sellers & catalogues often use "neuf sans gomme" (new without gum) and the symbol (*), Spanish "nuevo sin goma", etc.

Unless issued without gum, they are new as unused, but not mint.

Mint means pristine, neuf / nuevo means new, not pristine.

Dutch listings may use 'ongebruikt zonder gom' but 'postfris met plakker' and 'postfris zonder' gom are not listed unless. Some people, usually very dubious sellers' do state 'postfris met plakker.' Such does not exist as 'postfris' is as issued by the post office; i.e. without hinge, by definition.

Mint hinged, essentially, is incorrect use of the word mint. But it is used as it was common to hinge stamps until ca. the 1950s.

Interesting topic, btw!
I have between 5-6000 stamps listed on Hip, and I started out wanting to avoid the condition confusion, so right or wrong, I use the following:
Unused, Hinged
Unused, No Gum
Mint, Never Hinged

The only time I'll use the word "mint" is for a MNH stamp. Just want to be very clear on my descriptions. Ray

What a rabbit hole.

How much gum is the "correct" amount? Is partial gum as bad as no gum or can a little gum be considered equal to a lot of gum? Can the gum be streaky as produced? Are proofs and essays without gum mint or are they excluded from the used category?

Wrapped around the axle on definitions.

I keep things easy for myself: I ignore any offering described only as "mint." I don't look or read any farther than that. I'm fine with MNH, MH, U/M, **, *, used, regummed, and a few others. But just calling it "mint" makes me believe the seller is making the ultimate poor assumption, that everyone thinks the same way as they do.

What I find interesting are descriptions for complete booklets as mint never hinged. Does anyone hinge booklets?

2 points.

NGAI - No Gum As Issued (Often seen for the Farley issues in the US)

I believe that there are some countries, in the early years, that the mint stamps were usually soaked to remove the gum due to long term storage problems caused by the gum. How are these described now?