on a Sig P220 is there anything about the serial number that can tell me about the gun. As far as the year of manufacture. Or does the letter "A" represent something?

serial number 37A035160

quote:

Originally posted by trx680:
on a Sig P220 is there anything about the serial number that can tell me about the gun. As far as the year of manufacture. Or does the letter "A" represent something?

serial number 37A035160

It will tell you nothing about the manufacture date.

There is a thread about serial numbers, but it appears it is limited to older numbers.

SIG changed its numbering system some time ago. From a cursory examination of new guns, it appears that the first two numbers refer to the gun model. I.e., “37” would be a P220, “47” is a P226, and “58” is a P320. I don’t know for certain what the letter following the first two digits is, but I believe it’s part of the serial number sequence. Once the A numbers reach 999999, then it rolls over to B and so on (I believe). For example, I have seen a P226 with 47C007xxx.

The date of manufacture is often printed on the box label.

Glock figured out a long time ago that letters give you more options that just numbers.

SIG eventually figured that out too.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Glock figured out a long time ago that letters give you more options that just numbers.

SIG eventually figured that out too.

SIG USA only. Current serial number scheme from SIG DE is all numbers.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Glock figured out a long time ago that letters give you more options that just numbers.

The problem, however, with letters is the difficulty of avoiding things that people don’t want spelled out or abbreviated. I remember reading about backlash against some state’s use of “GAY” as part of a license plate. It was only part of the plate (the rest was numbers) and the letter combination was just like countless others that had been used, but some people were outraged at the idea it would be on their vehicle. I was actually somewhat surprised when plates with “MUD” showed up in my area; many off-roaders probably sported it with pride, but not so many BMW owners.

The more letters that are used together, the harder it can be to avoid a combination that offends someone. Imagine what a rabid antigunner would think of “NRA,” or even worse, “INRA,” on her car. How many members here might object to “DEM” or “SJW”? Numbers are generally much less controversial, but I know one woman who is chagrined to this day by the fact that her social security account number contains “666.”

And of course different letter combinations are more likely to offend someone if, like guns, the product is sold in many different countries. Americans who are familiar with the abbreviation “OAS” may think of Organization of American States, but when I was a kid in France the same group of graffiti letters painted on a wall referred to the Organisation Armée Secrète (“Secret Army Organization”) that was opposed to granting Algeria its independence. Later when I was stationed in Germany there was a group of license plates that started with FÜCK. The bureaucrat who came up with that combination obviously didn’t think of the glee seeing it would arouse in the average American soldier. (Or perhaps, being German, he just didn’t care how much Americans might be titillated by it.)

A company like Glock probably has an entire section of multilinguals looking at proposed serial “numbers” to avoid offensive letter combinations.

^^^ You mean like not having a 13'th floor on buildings?
Pretty silly but I guess someone thinks it's necessary to avoid offending someone.
I'm not sure how you can do anything today without offending someone.

As to letters I have one friend that has two Glock 43s, Both start off with BABY as the first four places in the serial number. He loved that. I thought it was kinda neat when he said don't piss baby off to someone and they had no idea what he was saying. I have also seen one BUTT on a 43. We were waiting see what happened when they got to the "T"s. (Ti_s) I seem to remember we were looking for Boo_s but no such luck. If you didn't know, we were working at the shop that was selling them so we did find those numbers before they were on the shelf since we were the ones logging them in the books. RHIP