For many years, I abbreviated printer's names with three letters, principally because most collectors do not ascribe much importance to printers.

However, a few major contributors have asked for more details in this area. Mainly because three letters simply does not give sufficient ability to discriminate between similarly-named companies. Consequently, I am going back through all my references and adding more details as I get the time.

This is a long process, made more difficult because I do not have all the sources that the original printer's names came from. So please contribute full names when you find printer's names I have missed.

Please note that the vast majority of generic certificates were (and still are) printed by Goes Lithographic Co. in Chicago. Most show the ellipse-shaped "GOES" logo in the lower left corner of the border. Many different local printers overprinted Goes' certificates with company names and other details. Some of those secondary added their own imprint. However, please be aware that I still list most generic certificates as "Goes", because it was the primary certificate designer.

Here is an example of the bottom left corner of a typical Goes' certificate. It shows both Goes' logo and a secondary imprint by a local printer. Please note that the logo sometimes appears close to middle of the bottom border. Some Goes certificates lack the logo entirely, and simply carry a notification like ©GOES. And just to complicate matters, there are probably around a hundred generic certificates that are identical in all respects to Goes' certificates, but they lack any attribution. Some may be "knock-offs", but I suspect most were really Goes' certificates.