Barcode Serial Number Formats

[Bijan]

Just looking into the verification codes on boxes since March 2009.

I think everything I have is in format 4 (12 digits no spaces), with my oldest box with a barcode being an OCT 09 and being in the range 000007ABCDEF.

I have seen codes in format 2 (5 digits space 7 digits), from 2009 in the range 000003ABCDEF.

Does anyone have an example of a format 1 (6 space 6, with an extra digit at the beginning) or format 3 (5 space 7 with an extra digit at the beginning) code and what range it falls in? Are those also 2009? Is everything 2010 onwards in format 4?

[Bijan]

Managed to find what seems to be the rough cutoff between format 2 (5 space 7) and 4 (12 digits no spaces).

Looking through Bond Roberts for 2009 boxes I found:

00000612ABCD NOV 09

and

00000 609ABCD MAR 09

So it seems somewhere between 6090000 and 6120000 they switched formats.

I found one lone format 1 (1 space 6 space 6) on a box LGC Deliciosos. Oddly enough to verify it you have to choose format 2 or 4 and enter all 13 digits. Entering 12 digits and choosing format 1 will verify as a box of RASCC.

Don't think I saw any format 3 (1 space 5 space 7), but it's possible one of the boxes I saw as format 2 was actually format 3 and I missed the single digit at the front.

[El Presidente]

Well done Columbo!

 

[Habana Mike]

Yes! Serious cigar code detective!

[Shrimpchips]

Interesting to know how the codes track, but I was wondering why you went down this rabbit hole? What were you trying to find out from the authentication codes?  

[Bijan]

26 minutes ago, Shrimpchips said:

Interesting to know how the codes track, but I was wondering why you went down this rabbit hole? What were you trying to find out from the authentication codes?  

Good question. This thread was the initial motivation:

Basically a suspect box with a weird 13-digit format serial, which happened to verify correctly. This started me down this particular rabbit hole

[Shrimpchips]

I wonder if you could use this to get an indication of the number of boxes/master cases produced for any given vitola?  Thinking about how limited things like SW and Party 8-9-8s are, you might be able to get an indication of the production levels for those with limited availability.

[Bijan]

9 hours ago, Shrimpchips said:

I wonder if you could use this to get an indication of the number of boxes/master cases produced for any given vitola?  Thinking about how limited things like SW and Party 8-9-8s are, you might be able to get an indication of the production levels for those with limited availability.

If you had access to the full database you could definitely do that.

Otherwise the serials are scattered, just in master case sized chunks.

One method with partial access would be to try randomly spaced serials and see how many of each vitola come up as a random statistical method for figuring production numbers. You'd expect the most produced cigars would show up most often and the least produced least often.

This is all since ranges of serial numbers to years can be roughly established.