Brooks Decoder Ring
 

Does anyone know the significance of these codes? They were found on the underside of a Brooks B-66 saddle. Let me know if you have any info - thanks!

I don't recall the scheme, but Andrea gave us the rules in the Brooks Imperial thread - it was rather nearer the end of the thread than the beginning.

the decoder ring is what was given to that new member about a week ago... I forgot what thread it was in, but it had something to do with letting him into the club... good luck finding that ring.

Here's from another thread where Andrea answered it:

The code stamped on the underside of the saddle is the date of production. Since a few decades you find a 3 digit sequence: "number", "letter", "number". For example 9C2:
-"9" and "2" stand for 1992
-"C" is the month and as it is the 3rd letter of the alphabet it means March

Don't ask me how my English colleagues and forefathers came up with this. I guess it was a way to kind of hide the date of production.

Andrea
BROOKS ENGLAND LTD.

I think that pertains to the code stamped onto the metal cantel plate though. I'm not sure about the stamps on the leather.

Found this on www.vintage-trek.com:

Brooks Saddles - Prior to sometime in the 1960s the inside of leather side flaps were stamped with a date code. The stamp denoted the month and year of manufacture. Mrs. O'Donnell* writes: "Unfortunately, the "code" book is now lost so we cannot decipher the actual codes used at that time. It is, sadly, not quite as simple as A=January, B=February etc. This 'flap' stamping changed to the frame stamping around the 1960's although there was an 'overlap' period where both the leather and the frame were stamped."
The metal frames of the saddles were stamped with the date of manufacture from sometime in the 1960s to about 1988.
The current method of stamping Brooks saddles is a colored stamp on the underside of the saddle, with a number for the year surrounding a letter for the month.
(*The above Brooks information was provided in an e-mail from Mrs. E. O'Donnell in the Sales Department of Sturmey-Archer, when that company owned Brooks. Mrs. O'Donnell was writing to Robert Williams in response to his query about date codes. Our thanks to these two individuals and to Larry Osborn, who secured a copy of the original e-mail.)