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

[Han Enderman]

The date codes FZ-BV were printed June 1917-Feb 1921 and have the gold band label.
As far as I know the green labels are later.
Pres. there were no ethnic series at the time?

The later codes like BP have been mentioned before by Steven Barr, but the meaning is not known.
Other codes (all after BV) are GJ, CP, all used for a rather short time it seems.
I have a single later label with a normal code: FV on A-3429 (by Yerkes), but this issue also exists without code.
Possibly A-3443 (Nora Bayes) exists with GV (picture not clear) and BP.
It seems BP is the most common later code.

Han Enderman
===

>>> You say another system was used after this. What was it? On subsequent releases I have the code BP and CP being used.  CP on 3401 and BP on 3410, 3429, 3433, 3439.  After that there are no codes on any records I have above this last catalog number.  I'm assuming then that P was 1922.
 
Glenn

--- On Wed, 1/14/09, Han Enderman <jcenderman at solcon.nl> wrote:

From: Han Enderman <jcenderman at solcon.nl>
Subject: [78-L] Columbia date codes - was: Columbia question
To: "78-L" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 12:09 AM

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 
<<<