[78-L] His Master's Voice labels - small number?

[Kristjan Saag]

David Palmquist asked:

 > HMV labels often have their catalogue numbers such as B.6449 as well 
as another small number like 40-6067. This is > not the matrix number. 
Can anyone tell me what it signified, please?
--
 From the outset these "face numbers" were identical with catalogue 
numbers; with one sided issues there was no problem.
The early double-sided Gramophone Company issues had separate catalogue 
numbers for each side. At the time (around 1920?) when general catalogue 
numbers were introduced  for a particular disc (same number for both 
sides) the Gramophone Company still issued single-sided discs in certain 
series. This may have been one reason to preserve the face number system.
Another one may have been the absence of national mx-series. These 
weren't  introduced by the Gramophone Company until 1934, which had made 
it difficult to identify recordings as to their origin. Recordings made 
in, for instance, Copenhagen got mx numbers after the sound engineers 
(who were international artists), and catalogue numbers according to 
market (some Scandinavian recordings, for instance, were made for the 
Baltic states in the 1910's and got catalogue numbers for Eastern Europe).
The face number, thus, was a way to identify origin. When national mx 
numbers were introduced the face number system was dropped.
Hope this helps - there may be addenda and corrections to come from more 
experienced contributors...
Kristjan