Little Spoon's Virtual Museum

Of Restaurant Ware And Restaurant China

Since 1996 A Personal Collector's Site For Restaurant China.

Date Code Backstamps for Restaurant China

Following are date codes for Jackson, Mayer, Shenango, Syracuse, Sterling, and Wallace China Companies. These dates were applied at the time of manufacture to remind the commercial customer of the quality and longevity of the china. Some of my best Syracuse pieces are over 40 years old and look brand new. I will be adding more companies to this list as I find the keys to the codes. If anyone out there help out, email me at: helpme@restaurant-ware.com It would be great to share as much information as possible.

Jackson China Dates

Pretty simple: Letter on back corresponds to the year in the table. Notice that the letters repeat at the year 1977. I can't verify the accuracy of this table at the moment but I'm working on it.

A	1951	M	1963	Y	1975
B	1952	N	1964	Z	1976
C	1953	O	1965	A	1977
D	1954	P	1966	B	1978
E	1955	Q	1967	C	1979
F	1956	R	1968	D	1980
G	1957	S	1969	E	1981
H	1958	T	1970	F	1982
I	1959	U	1971	G	1983
J	1960	V	1972	H	1984
K	1961	W	1973	I	1985
L	1962	X	1974	J	1986

Mayer China

Piece of cake. The last two numbers are the year of manufacture, i.e., 355 is 1955.

Shenango China

First column is the year of manufacture. Second column is a number which represents the year of manufacture in the backstamp. The Third and Fourth columns are letters which represent whether the plate was made between January-June (column 3) or July-December (column 4).
Example: 20A = July-Dec/1962
I guess the point was if the diner turned the plate over and saw it was made thirty years ago, that may indicate that the meatloaf was possible old as well so the codes kept the nosy from the truth.

1950	8	M	A	1959	17	W	J	1968	26	R	G
1951	9	N	B	1960	18	X	K	1969	27	T	H
1952	10	O	C	1961	19	Y	L	1970	28	U	A
1953	11	P	D	1962	20	Z	A	1971	29	V	B
1954	12	Q	E	1963	21	M		1972	30	W	C
1955	13	R	F	1964	22	N	C	1973	31	X	D
1956	14	T	G	1965	23	O	D	1974	32	Y	E
1957	15	U	H	1966	24	P	E	1975	33	Z	F
1958	16	V	I	1967	25	Q	F	1976	34	M	G

Sterling China

The following datecode information was submitted originally by Randy Flowerday yadrewolf@aol.com He actually got this information by contacting the company directly. They are still in business. After a couple of computer crashes I lost his original date codes and found a copy somewhere else which I present to you now. It is a bit fuzzy but maybe eventually I will rescan it. Again, maybe you could call Sterling and get the info for yourself. They are on my phone number page. Enjoy.

Syracuse China

On Econo-Rim and Syracuse China there are date codes that were put there to remind the institutional customer of how long their china has lasted. As proof of the durability of vitrified china, my oldest pieces dating back to the late forties look the least for wear. I had assumed they were from the late seventies!!! Originally the company started with letters and then double letters. They switched to using numbers for the year and a letter to denote the month of manufacture in 1960. Here is an incomplete list of codes...

1930	K	1935	P	1940	U	1945	Z	1950	EE	1955	JJ
1931	L	1936	Q	1941	V	1946	AA	1951	FF	1956	KK
1932	M	1937	R	1942	W	1947	BB	1952	GG	1957	LL
1933	N	1938	S	1943	X	1948	CC	1953	HH	1958	MM
1934	O	1939	T	1944	Y	1949	DD	1954	II	1959	NN
1960	OO

When they switched to numbers, letters were used to designate the month of manufacture. (example: 90-C stands for March, 1961)
Jan-A Feb-B Mar-C Apr-D May-E Jun-F Jul-G Aug-H Sep-I Oct-J Nov-K Dec-L

1960	89	1962	91	1964	93	1966	95	1968	97	1970	99
1961	90	1963	92	1965	94	1967	96	1969	98	1971	100

I believe the company started over with the number 4 in 1975 ie 1976=5, 1977=6, etc.

Walker China

Another piece of cake...Just add 1922 to the number found on the bottom of the dish.
Example: 39 = 1961. Enjoy!

Wallace China

Thank You Jack Chipman...Everyone buy this guy's books!!! Researcher unsurpassed!!!
Warning: I have been told that these dates may not be accurate. But I have no way to verify them so user Beware!!!
Month:
2=Jan, 3=April, 4=May, 5=Feb, 6=June, 7=March, 8=July, 9=Nov, 10=Dec, 11=Sept, 12=Aug, 14=Oct Year: (to 1956)
A=1931, B='32, C='33, D='34, E='35, F='36, G='37, H='38, I='39, J='40, K='41, L='42, M='43, N='44, O='45, Z='46, Y='47, W='48, V='49, X='50, S='51, Q='52, P='53, U='54, T='55, R='56
Back to Little Spoon Museum home page.
helpme@restaurant-ware.com
©1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Chris Trent