Turathium Identifier or TID

Turathium identifier or TID (pronounced Tee Eye Dee) is a unique alphanumeric code we assign for series (a group of items) and items.  TIDs morphologically declare the categorization of series and items and their interrelationship,  making them easier to track. We think that TIDs are easier to recall when compared to other identifiers.

Basis: Countries, Series and Items

Countries

Practically, for easier referral, we group items of a certain country together in a collection.

Series

We group items of a collection in several series. Every item in a collection must belong to a series.

A series of items is a group of related items that can be conveniently presented together as a unit.

Series make it easier to track individual items and provide a basis of a system to present them.

A set of stamps is an example of a series, another example would be a set of coins issued together as one unit, also an album of cards or photos.

Chronological Order

As a rule of thumb, series and items within a series are arranged chronologically starting from the earliest.

Turathium Identifier - TID

A TID of a series is composed of two parts: The Country Code and The Series Code, while that of its items requires an additional  one: The Item Code.

Country Code

The first part of a TID is a two letters code followed by a dash (-). The two letters country code is derived from ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes.

Example: TIDs for items of a Lebanese collection are prefixed with (LB-).

The Country Code can be omitted if that does not make the referral to an item ambiguous. 

The Series Code

The second part is an alphanumeric code composed of an optional single capital letter prefix (Category Prefix), a serial number and a small letter suffix (Series Variant Suffix).

The serial number specifies the series order within a category in a collection. (e.g. 1,2,3, etc.).

The Category Prefix is a single capital letter optionally added before the serial number to assign the series to a certain category. (e.g. E3, C18, S12). You should note that the serial sequence for each category is independent and it starts from 1.

The Series Variant Suffix is a single small letter optionally added after the serial number to distinguish different variants of the same series. (e.g. E3a, E3b).

TID Of A Series

TIDs of series are composed of two parts: the Country Code and the Series Code. 

Examples: LB-3, US-C2, FR-E3.

Notice that 3, C3, E3 and E3a are TIDs of different series, and that the omission of the country code implies that the country must be implied by the context.

The Item Code

The third part is an alphanumeric code starting with a dot (.) followed by a serial number and an optional capital letter suffix (The Version Suffix) followed by an optional small letter suffix (The Version Variant Suffix).

The dot separates the Series Code and the Item Code.

The serial number specifies the item order within the series it belongs to.

A single capital letter is added as a suffix (Version Suffix) to distinguish different versions of an item when they exist.

A single small letter (Version Variant Suffix) follows a Version Suffix to distinguish different version variants of an item.

TID Of An Item

TIDs of items are composed of three parts: the Country Code, the Series Code and the Item Code.

Examples: LB-3.4, US-C2.2, FR-3.1P, 12.6, C5.2Ea

Explaining Some TIDs

LB-3.4 indicates item number 4 of series 3 in a Lebanon collection.

3.4E and 3.4S refers to two different versions of item 3.4, E and S each denotes a category.

3.4Ea and 3.4Eb are two different  variants of item 3.4E which is a version of item 3.4.