James,

The way I was taught to do it:

Apply one coat of clear nail pollish, then write number with india ink
using a fine calligraphy pen, then another coat of nail pollish over
that to keep the ink from being rubbed or washed off. The whole thing
cab be removed with a simple swipe of nail pollish remover, leaving no
trace.
This works especially well on smooth shells, or inside the aperature,
where I usually put it (on the columella side, because on very thin
shells the ink can be seen through from the outside if put on a thin
lip.
On black shells, such as Cypraea onyx, I've applied a coat of White Out
before the number so you can see the black ink on the black shell.
I use a very fine pen tip, and can write small enough that you almost
need an magnifying glass to read the number. It works great!
Thanks go to Sue Jeffreys for showing me how to do this.

Cheers,
Peter


>Dear all, need a bit MORE help. I was wondering, is there any way that I
>can
>number my shells for my database without permanently marking them? I am
>sort of an asthetic collector, so I don't want my specimens to be covered
>with
>unremovable numbers. Can anyone help?
>
>Thanks,
>James
>
>
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Peter Egerton, Vancouver, Canada
Collector of worldwide Mollusca
http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
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