Originally Posted by T-Mar

Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have have a workable solution for the early 1980 codes, format LLNNNNNN, where L = letter and N= number.

The 1st letter/character appears to represent the manufacturer's identity. To date, I have logged four different codes - F, I, J & K. I do not know if these represent different Fuji manufacturing sites or contractors.

The 2nd letter/character is a year stratifier. In this case it appears to be a month rather than a fortnight. In 18 data sets I have nine different letters represented, but none is higher than L, the 12th letter.

The 1st number (3rd character) represents the last digit of the calendar year, (i.e. 0= 1980, 1= 1981, 2 = 1982, etc.). In all 18 cases the component codes were from the previous or same year, providing excellent correlation. To date, I have serial numbers that span 1980-1985 inclusive. Presumibly the span extends further, but I have no data to prove it.

The remaining numbers/characters are a sequential frame manufacturing number for the month.


As an example, lets look at spacedman's Espree in the above post:

Serial number is SC335940 where,

S = facility or contractor

C = 3rd month (March)

3 = last digit of year of manufacture (1983)

35940 = 35,940th frame for March 1983


The one thing that I have yet to determine is where the cut-off occurs for the new model year. It should be very safe to assume that frames manufactured in the first 6 months represent that model year. Likewise, frames from the last 3 months almost surely represent the upcoming model year. But the months 7-9 could go either way and the cutover may even change from year to year.