BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: spencerwatts on August 30, 2014, 01:39:21 PM
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Before I stopped bowling back in 1996, the first digit of a bowling ball's serial number was the way of identifying what year it was made (e.g., 5B112345). So I've been back bowling since January 2014, and I've noticed bowling ball serial numbers are different with letters as the first in the alpha-numeric string (e.g., HFL51988). How is it done now?
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This is the last info I have gathered from the forums:
Old chart of Brunswick Serial Number codes.
First letter is the month.
A - Jan. B - Feb. C - Mar. D - April E - May F - June
G - July H - Aug. I - Sept. J - Oct. K - Nov. L - Dec.
Second letter is the year
F - 1992 G - 1993 H - 1994 I - 1995 J - 1996 K - 1997 L - 1998 M - 1999 N - 2000
O - 2001 P - 2002 R - 2003 S - 2004 T - 2005 Y - 2006 Z - 2007 A - 2008
But now this has changed since they moved to Mexico.
Storm/Rotogrip, the year is the first two, followed by a three letter code for the ball
Followed by a batch code, then a ball serial number (the specific ball in the batch)
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That wasn't true for all manufacturers.
I know Brunswick's code had the first letter representing the month it was made,
Jan - A, Feb - B, Mar - C, April - D, May - E, June - F, July - G, Aug - H, Sept - I, Oct - J, Nov - K, Dec - L.
and the second letter represented the year.
2005 - T
2006 - Y
2007 - Z
2008 - A
etc.
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Thanks. I should have clarified that my Brunswick and Radical equipment that I've purchased this year uses the alpha to start the serial number string.
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Visionary uses SL (St Louis) then the next two numbers represent the year.