A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding a Coat of Arms

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Joe Shervell is an infographic designer with a love of medieval history and has just finished ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding a Coat of Arms’. He says “I’ve always been interested in heraldry and crests, and as I was researching the topic I was overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know. For instance a ‘family crest’ is only a very small part of the overall coat of arms – a commonly misunderstood concept. There are plenty of other rules that apply to coats of arms and I was lucky enough to have an advisor from My Family Silver, who are approved by The College of Arms – so the information here should all be completely accurate.”

He suggested that I upload it in my blog, so that all of you can profit from that. He is deeply grateful to www.myfamilysilver.com . They were instrumental in helping him find the right info for the graphic (they’re approved by the Royal College of Arms).