Date Your RCA Victor Pressings
Go To Discography of all RCA Pressings in our Database
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RCA custom pressed a large number of local label records across the United States from the early 1950's on. Their pressing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana pressed 1000's of local label releases in the area throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's. There is a code in the RCA matrix numbers that identifies when the record was mastered (it was usually pressed and released immediately thereafter). The code is located in the first letter and number of the eight digit matrix number up to 1954. In 1955, RCA changed it's system slightly so that the first letter alone represented the year. The following chart shows the dating information from 1950 to 1975: |
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E0 - 1950 E1 - 1951 E2 - 1952 E3 - 1953 E4 - 1954 F - 1955 G - 1956 H - 1957 J - 1958 K - 1959 |
L - 1960 M - 1961 N - 1962 P - 1963 R - 1964 S - 1965 T - 1966 U - 1967 W - 1968 X - 1969 |
Z - 1970 A - 1971 B - 1972 C - 1973 D - 1974 E - 1975 |
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Notice that the system skips any letter that could be easily confused with a number. In the list above, the letters: I, O, Q, V and Y are skipped. A typical RCA matrix number contains eight digits of letters and numbers. Examples of RCA Victor regular releases and custom pressings are: |
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This dating system actually starts earlier in the century, as follows:
You'll find this dating system used on some 45 rpm re-releases of RCA material originally issued earlier in the century on 78 rpm recordings. If this is new information to you, start pulling out some of the records in your collection and check it out. Enjoy! |
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