Dating card decks by AOS codes

[Rob Wright]

From Hochman  G = 1904, 1925, 1945, 1965, 1985. I assume 2005 would be included.

Card has G 1109



C = 1922, 1941, 1961, 1981, 2001

Card has C 3408


Obviously the letter narrows down the year, but the numbers do not match. Is there a formula to figure it out?

[Don Boyer]

When you have a single letter followed by four digits, the number doesn't mean anything in regards to the date of manufacture.  It's only on modern decks that the four digits BEFORE the letter give you the week and month of manufacture.  As the letters repeat approximately once every two decades, you need to use other clues to determine a deck's age beyond that.  Design of pips, design of courts, index size, tax stamp (if the deck's tuck box is reasonably intact) including the cancellation stamp on it - those are some of the main cues you'd use.

Your Steamboats have some cues - the use of the steamboat joker rather than one of the more politically-incorrect designs is a clue, as is the mention of USPC printing the deck at the "Russell & Morgan Factories."  That title used on an Ace of Spades was common for USPC between 1894 and 1925.  That narrows it down to the first two possibilities, 1904 and 1925.  Since I think they were still using the racist joker in 1904, the better guess would be 1925 - though I could be wrong.  A little quick research didn't yield any results on how long those jokers were being used.

For the bottom deck, the mention of "Consolidated Doughtery Card Co., Inc." is a big cue.  While both companies, Andrew Doughtery and New York Consildated, were owned by USPC, they were operated independently.  USPC combined them into Consolidated Doughtery in 1930, and in 1962 absorbed the company into its own operations - that limits your deck to either 1941 or 1961.

[52plusjoker]

First of all many people think that a letter on the Ace will reveal the year through the code. NOT SO. The letter has to be followed by exactly four digits, and no knows if these digits have any specific meaning. The two Steamboat Jokers with a boy enjoying a slice of watermelon were only used for a brief period and are quite rare. They were only used with the US7 and US7a Aces and were stopped in the early 1890's. The deck pictured by Rob is from 1904.

[Don Boyer]

First of all many people think that a letter on the Ace will reveal the year through the code. NOT SO. The letter has to be followed by exactly four digits, and no knows if these digits have any specific meaning. The two Steamboat Jokers with a boy enjoying a slice of watermelon were only used for a brief period and are quite rare. They were only used with the US7 and US7a Aces and were stopped in the early 1890's. The deck pictured by Rob is from 1904.

If I was forced to guess, I'd think the four-digit number following the letter is one of two things; either a lot number for the print run, or some kind of internal use code about how the deck was made.  The former is the more likely of the two, and if so, they likely had some code to it since I've not read anywhere about the numbers being consecutive in any way - I'd think if there was a pattern, it would have been uncovered decades ago.

[52plusjoker]

First of all many people think that a letter on the Ace will reveal the year through the code. NOT SO. The letter has to be followed by exactly four digits, and no knows if these digits have any specific meaning. The two Steamboat Jokers with a boy enjoying a slice of watermelon were only used for a brief period and are quite rare. They were only used with the US7 and US7a Aces and were stopped in the early 1890's. The deck pictured by Rob is from 1904.

If I was forced to guess, I'd think the four-digit number following the letter is one of two things; either a lot number for the print run, or some kind of internal use code about how the deck was made.  The former is the more likely of the two, and if so, they likely had some code to it since I've not read anywhere about the numbers being consecutive in any way - I'd think if there was a pattern, it would have been uncovered decades ago.

Yup - that's a likely scenario. I have talked to a number of people at USPC and never got anything but speculation.

[Watson7]

I called USPCC Customer Service Department some time ago and inquired about the production code on the current Bicycle decks. I was informed that the first two digits refer to the week and the second two digits refer to the year when the deck was made. That was all I was able to learn.The lady had no other information.  As I type this, I am looking at two Aces of Spades from two Bicycle decks. One has the following code: 1613-S6560. According to the information given to me, the deck was made in the sixteenth week of 2013. Interestingly, under the old code, the letter S would have been assigned to 2013. The other Ace has the code 2812-R6730. Here it would appear that the deck was made in the 28th week of 2012 and again, under the old code the letter R would have been assigned to 2012. It appears that USPCC is retaining the old letter code with respect to the year of manufacture but has augmented it digitally to include the week of the year as well. Customer service could not explain what the numbers mean after the letter but over 30 years ago, I spoke with a USPCC employee who told me that they relate to manufacturing elements such as the paper roll used to print the deck on and the particular press utilized in the printing. That sounds reasonable to me and it's all I've got. Hope it helps.

[52plusjoker]

Great info Rod

[Don Boyer]

That's really good info, actually.

It begs the question: Does it mean the same thing now as it did back then?  They moved to a new plant, brand new equipment...would they carry over the old designations?

They probably keep the letter code out of inertia, but there's also been some recent variations in the pattern of letters used.  From 1961, the letters used didn't change pattern until 2011, when for the first time since 1910 they used the letter N, then skipped P going into 2012 in favor of R.  (All this notwithstanding the Q date code, which Lee states on his site was used sporadically in '91 and '92, but never before or since.

Personally, I haven't seen any decks made by and for USPC with a 2014 date on them yet, though they should be on the market pretty soon if not already.  T is the next letter in line, but will they use it?