Commons:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillology

The Commons WikiProject Heraldry deals with heraldry issues. It was established in January 2009.

The goal of this project is to organise and sort the Heraldry and its subcategories, to create consistency in media naming and categories on commons for heraldry related media, and to have high-quality SVG representations of coat of arms. The final purpose is to provide a worldwide roll of arms.

It is now standard that files of coat of arms and elements should use the Template:COAInformation.
There is a gadget (quick JavaScript helper) named Gadget-InformationToCOA.js for replacing the template: Information with template: COAInformation.
You need only edit your common.js with adding the following line: importScript('MediaWiki:Gadget-InformationToCOA.js');

The name of your uploaded file should be as significant and distinct as possible. Please note that file names shouldn't be changed after upload! Simply queue one word after another, don't use a "-" or similar inbetween.

There is no Commons standard for files naming. Especially for arms of administrative units (e.g. towns) it has been useful to build a filename with LLL unitname COA, where LLL is a national code like AUT, AUS, CAN, CHE, POL giving names as "AUT Klagenfurt COA", "CHE Schaffhausen COA", "DEU Wiesbaden COA".

Another standard has been established by the French-speaking Wikipedia Coats of arms Project, and by the Italian-speaking one:

1. The image is a coat of arms : Coat of arms or another word according to your language (Wappen, Stemma, etc.)
2. Specify the nature of the holder of arms : city / family / province / etc.
3. Specify the present country of the holder, by its code : en / fr / de / etc.
4. Specify the name of the holder (for a city, it can be followed by the territorial subdivision it belongs to, in brackets). For example : Mex (Vaud)

Examples (in French)

• Blason province ca Nouvelle-Écosse.svg
• Blason ville ch Mex (Vaud).svg
• Blason évêque be Harpigny.svg
• Blason famille it Gatto di Carmagnola.svg

Examples (in Italian)

• Torre Annunziata-Stemma.svg
• San Giorgio Lucano-Stemma.svg
• Alcara Li Fusi-Stemma.svg
• Provincia di Viterbo-Stemma.svg

Examples (in German)

• "AUT Bad Waltersdorf COA.jpg"
• "CHE Rüfenacht BE COA.svg"
• "DEU Bodenfelde COA.svg"

If there is an own category for this specific coat of arms already, put your file in there (for example : Coats of arms of Amsterdam).
Otherwise, the coat of arms should be put in the specific categories :

There are specific subcategories within Coats of arms, for each kind of holder.
For example, if the holder is a man or a family, see Coats of arms of families by country ; if it is a municipality or city, see Coats of arms of municipalities by country.

• The field, or a charge, may be divided into more than one tincture or covered with a pattern : see subcategories within Heraldic divisions
• The arms may bear ordinaries or common charges : see subcategories within Heraldic ordinaries and Heraldic figures
• The arms may present particular tinctures (ermine, vair) : see Heraldic tinctures and especially Furs in heraldry
• The arms may contain elements (charges, meubles) from other images : use {{Attrib}} or {{Attribs}} to specify image and author

If the representation is a SVG image, put it in the specific category within SVG coats of arms, and specify its validity and Tinctures.
There are also categories if the coat of arms appears on a stamp (Coats of arms on stamps), a coin (Coats of arms on coins), or on a three-dimensional representation (Reliefs of coats of arms); see also e.g. Valid SVG created with Inkscape:Ecclesiastical heraldry for higher specification.

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