[78-L] Columbia date codes - was: Columbia question

[Chris Zwarg]

At 06:09 14.01.2009, you wrote:
>The first date codes used by Columbia known to me are FZ on Co A-2296 (Al Jolson) and A-2297 (ODJB!), printed June 1917 (Z = 1917 !) [not 1916]. More common is GZ for the ODJB, printed the next month, but later pressings are known with AY (January 1918), DX (April 1919) and AW (Jan 1920).
>Is it known, from a Columbia catalogue, which catalogue numbers were issued in June and July 1917?
>
>Andrea's label has a bottom rim text which agrees with the AY labels. On the later AW label the patent information is shorter (running from 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock) and as long as the name Columbia Graphophone Company, whereas the patent lines extend beyond the company name on the AY label (running almost from 9h to 3h). On AV labels (Jan 1921) the lowest patent line is even shorter then the upper patent line and the company name, so Andrea's label is AY (Jan 1918).
>The last code known to me in this series is BV on A-3379 by The Happy Six. From then on another system is used, occasionally even with 3 letters.
>
>Han Enderman

Do these codes appear on the green-label Ethnic series as well? I am asking because company paperwork for that series seems to be lost, and exact recording dates are impossible to come by. A collation of the label codes with the matrix numbers of the records they appear on should help greatly in reconstructing the dates for Ethnic-series masters. Han's example shows that the label dates follow the recording dates closely - the Happy Six side was cut on Feb.8th 1921, and the BV label was printed that same month.

Chris Zwarg