Decoding Quality Control Letters

Filofax have been hiding a Quality Control code on their organisers for some years. I think I spotted them several years ago. 

The Head of Design at Filofax UK confirmed that they were used to show the date and location of manufacture and then said 'You will not be able to work it out'.... right I thought.... "Challenge Accepted" !!

Where are these hidden codes? Generally you will find them on the inside of the clasp, close to the cover of the organiser. On zip closure organisers I have found them hidden inside one of the pockets. 

The example above is very easy to read, but on some it is difficult to read because the age of the organiser or the pattern of the grain of the leather. I have sometimes had to check mine with a magnifying glass, given my poor near sight!

Occasionally, you will come across an organiser that doesn't have the code stamped on it anywhere this could mean: 

• The organiser is a pre-production sample
• A review sample
• A prototype
• Or just simply the code got missed off, it doesn't mean it is a fake!

The code is made up of three capital letters signifying the year month and location of manufacture. The latter is very difficult to decode, but the year and month do still provide us with useful information to be able to estimate how old a particular organiser is. 

By examining lots of codes, a group of us on Facebook are fairly certain that the code started being used in 1991 and it looks something like this: 

A	1991	A	January
B	1992	B	February
C	1993	C	March
D	1994	D	April
E	1995	E	May
F	1996	F	June
G	1997	G	July
H	1998	H	August
I	1999	I	September
J	2000	J	October
K	2001	K	November
L	2002	L	December
M	2003
N	2004
O	2005
P	2006
Q	2007
R	2008
S	2009
T	2010
U	2011
V	2012
W	2013
X	2014
Y	2015
Z	2016

Looking through some of my own collection:

A4	Classic	JIV
Deskfax	Richmond	IAL
A5	Belmont	JLP
A5	Chameleon	VAW
A5	Holborn	VCX
A5	Malden	SCW
A5	Malden	SAW
Personal	Belmont	JDP
Personal	Eton	JIT
Personal	Holborn	VIW
Personal	Kensington	MHL
Personal	Malden	SEW
Personal	Malden	SIV
Compact	Holborn	VCX
Slimline	The Journey Travel Companion	KLX
Pocket	Chameleon	VBV
Pocket	Eton	JDS
Pocket	Holborn	VFW
Pocket	Malden	SFW
Pocket	Sandhurst	NEK
Mini	Malden	SBW
M2	Belgravia	IGM

Looking through these for confirmation. The Malden with the code SIV I bought in March 2011, with the Crimson Malden being introduced in 2010, a manufacture date of 2009, this seems about right. 

As you can see I bought it at a very good price! End of the run for that particular colour. 

One oddity in the lettering though is the Journey Travel Companion with the code KLX that came out in mid-2013 and my review was published in July 2013 None of the letters in that code are close to 2013 except X which is 2014, after the release date! 

The codes are used by the Filofax Quality Control department in Dalkeith, they check a random sample of incoming products against their specification and they note the code on their results sheet. 

What happened after 2016? I'm not sure I've not bought any Filofax organisers recently that have a code stamped in them. I have checked them all. It is possible they have adapted the code by reversing it or similar. 

Have you bought a new Filofax after 2016 that has the QC codes clearly shown on it. What are the codes and what is the model and the year you bought it. We might be able to crack the code again!