Certain characters seen in San Marino and Vatican City? (5,8)
I believe the answer is:
small capitals
'certain characters' is the definition.
'small capitals' can be an answer for 'characters' (small capital is a kind of character). I am not certain of the 'certain' bit.
'san marino and vatican city?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'city?' could be 'capital' (capital is a kind of city) and 'capital' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'smalls' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'seen in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for small capitals that I've seen before include "Short letters" , "Type" , "places like thirty two [AJACCIO] ?" , "places like Vaduz?" , "Upper-case letters of same size as lower-case" .)