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

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Zwarg" <doctordisc at truesoundtransfers.de>
> 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.
>
IIRC, yes...they did...!

...stevenc