Estes Motor date codes -Why not start with 'A'?

[5x7]

I posted earlier about Estes E15s with a date code of 13X10, with the X being 1993 I think. If 'X' is 1993 that would make 'A' 1970. I have mini motors and B14's, and 1/2A6's with full dates (like 2/27/76) printed on them as late as 1976, with no letter date code on them. So I have two questions if anyone has any idea:

1) What was the first year to use the letter date code?

2) Why wouldn't Estes start the date codes with 'A'?

Thanks for your help!!

[Intruder]

Well, that puts '77 at G, so maybe Estes didn't want to use letters that are the same as motors that they had in production. But that doesn't explain why they skipped F too. I don't know, this was before my time. :)

[Bob Kaplow]

I posted earlier about Estes E15s with a date code of 13X10, with the X being 1993 I think. If 'X' is 1993 that would make 'A' 1970. I have mini motors and B14's, and 1/2A6's with full dates (like 2/27/76) printed on them as late as 1976, with no letter date code on them. So I have two questions if anyone has any idea:

1) What was the first year to use the letter date code?

2) Why wouldn't Estes start the date codes with 'A'?

Thanks for your help!!

They started with the coding around 1976. The story I heard was that wit the start of freshness date coding on food, folks were returning motors as "expired".

The coding was origined to the year Damon purchased Estes from Vern.


BTW, the really old (pre-metric) motors I have are market with cryptic date codes rather than the actual date of manufacturer.

And I believe that all of the date codes used since 1976 are the Monday of the week they were produced. Date codes were updated weekly, not daily.

[5x7]

I heard the story about people thinking the date code was an expiration date. That is interesting to think year 'A' was the start of the Damon era. What is the earliest letter date code anyone can dig up?