Koenig
Seppi
Gowen Militaria
1404 Ragsdale Road
Greenville, NC 27858
ph: 252-830-5353
fax: 252-830-5353
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Email Bob
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HOW
TO READ EAST GERMAN DATE CODES
Determining when East
German tunics, overcoats, hats and other collectibles were manufactured is not
difficult if you know what to look for.
Two dating systems were
used: Digital and Letter Code. The Digital System was used in the early years
of the DDR; the Letter Code System replaced it beginning in 1968.
Digital System:
In the Digital System, the year of manufacture is shown either by its last 2
digits following a slash mark (example: /61= 1961), or by all four digits (example:
1961).
Letter Code System:
Beginning in 1968, letters were used in place of numbers to show the year of
manufacture. The chart below shows the year each letter represents. Note that
by an oversight the letter "L" was used twice: 1973 and 1987.
| K |
1968 |
| Z |
1969 |
| M |
1970 |
| X |
1971 |
| B |
1972 |
| L |
1973 (also 1987) |
| O |
1974 |
| S |
1975 |
| R |
1976 |
| A |
1977 |
| U |
1978 |
| F |
1979 |
| E |
1980 |
| G |
1981 |
| I |
1982 |
| C |
1983 |
| H |
1984 |
| T |
1985 |
| P |
1986 |
| L |
1987 (also 1973) |
| Y |
1988 |
| N |
1989 |
| D |
1990 |
Examples:
| 1966-dated
Hat
1856 = Inventory/Stock
#
1966 = Year
of Manufacture
NVA = Armed Forces
52 = Size |
1972-dated
Tunic
1862 = Inventory/Stock
#
K52 = Size
IV/B = 4th Quarter, 1972
("B" = 1972)
|
1984-dated
Overcoat
NVA = Armed Forces
H/1 = 1st Quarter, 1984
("H" =1984)
SG52 = Size |
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