Shimano Serial #s

[Cregan]

Is there a method to the serial numbers on Tiagras? As in, do they correspond to dates, factory, etc?

[Zimbass]

Bantam from Shimano posted this once :-

First letter is the year, second letter is the month, and third letter is the country of manufacture. The list is long so I am not going to type it all since it covers 1976-2015. I will post a couple and you can figure out the rest. We use A-Z for the years, so they reset every 25 years.

Years:

2002- A
2015- N

1990- O
2001- Z

Months are A-L:

Jan- A
Feb- B
Mar- C
Dec- L

Country of origin:

S- SIC (Japan)
P- SCM (Malaysia)

[Tightlines667]

I believe the first gen Tiagras had a month, year, and manufacture code.  The year should be a 2 digit code (representing the last 2 numbers of the year), if memory serves me.  Maybe Keith or someone can correct me, if my memory is failing me at the moment.

John