(naar een artikel door Kuno Rotter en Dietrich Arbenz)
Nou, dat heb ik ook meegemaakt. Maar enige tijd geleden vond ik een artikel, in het Duits, waaarin deze codes eens goed en volledig werden uitgelegd. Dus eindelijk had ik de informatie om ze te decoderen zelf.
Hieronder vind je een aantal tabellen en een uitleg hoe je ze moet toepassen. Ik heb ook een PDF gemaakt van 2 pagina’s met dezelfde informatie, die je kunt downloaden en printen (op A5 formaat, dubbelzijdig) en zelfs kunt lamineren, als je dat wil. 🙂 Zo kun je ze bij de hand houden op je werkbank of meenemen naar vlooienmarkten zodat je meteen kunt vaststellen of de data op die Fg Tist 282 die je daar spotte bij elkaar horen.

Je vindt deze codes op allerlei S&H producten en componenten, maar dit artikel beperkt zich tot telefoons en telefoononderdelen. De codering werd ook gebruikt op andere S&H producten, maar Siemens had meer productielocaties dan hieronder weergegeven.
Deze codes zijn aan de buitenkant van telefoons te vinden sinds 1929 of 1930. Daarvoor werden ze alleen aangebracht op onderdelen van telefoons, zoals haakcontacten, microfoons, microtelefoons (speakers), hoorns, etc. Kiesschijven gemaakt voor 1938 en condensatoren hebben normaliter geen code, maar gewoon een productiedatum die bestond uit het jaar en de maand (zoals 2 28, voor februari 1928).
Een Siemens code bestond uit 3 delen. Het eerste deel is de productielocatie, het midden het productiejaar en het laatste de productiemaand.

Hierboven is een typische vroege datumcode afgebeeld. In dit geval was het apparaat gemaakt op productielocatie B, Belin Siemensstadt, in het jaar L, 1930, in de 6de maand, Juni.
Productielocatie
Het eerste deel is de code voor de productielocatie. Codeerstijlen wisselen door de jaren heen. Niet alle locaties staan op deze lijst, alleen die telefoononderdelen fabriceerden.
Vestiging |
tot 1938 |
1939-1945 |
na 1950 |
na 1974 |
Berlin-Siemensstadt | B | (1) | 1 | |
WWF/S&H München Hofmannstr. | (J) | (6) | 6 | |
Siemens Bocholt | 11 | CT | ||
Siemens Gladbeck | EX | |||
Siemens Leipzig | E3 | |||
Siemens Speyer | (12) | |||
Siemens Östereich | W | 15 | 15 | Q7 |
Vereinigte Bayerische Telefonwerke (VBT) | B | 31 | ||
OLAP Milano | O | 42 | ||
Elektrotechna Prag | C | 44 | ||
CGTT Siemens France | P | |||
Siemens Argentinien | 151 | L1 | ||
Siemens Brasilien, São Paulo | 199 | BR | ||
Siemens Brasilien, Curitiba | K7 | |||
Siemens Australien | AU | |||
Siemens Thessaloniki | 230 | N4 | ||
Siemens Austin/USA | E4 | |||
Siemens Cherry Hill/USA | SN |
( ) alleen onderdelen zoals kiesschijven, haakcontacten, condensatoren, etc.
Year codes
Hieronder staat de tabel met jaarletters. De blanco cellen geven aan dat de letter in kwestie is overgeslagen. De reden hiervoor is doorgaans dat de letter te veel lijkt om een cijfer, zoals de i en de o.
Letter | Jaar | Jaar | Jaar | Jaar | Letter | Jaar | Jaar | Jaar | Jaar | |
A | 1920 | 1945 | 1970 | 1990 | N | 1932 | 1957 | 1981 | 2001 | |
B | 1921 | 1946 | 1971 | 1991 | O | 1933 | 1958 | |||
C | 1922 | 1947 | 1972 | 1992 | P | 1934 | 1959 | 1982 | 2002 | |
D | 1923 | 1948 | 1973 | 1993 | Q | 1935 | 1960 | |||
E | 1924 | 1949 | 1974 | 1994 | R | 1936 | 1961 | 1983 | 2003 | |
F | 1925 | 1950 | 1975 | 1995 | S | 1937 | 1962 | 1984 | 2004 | |
G | 1926 | 1951 | 1976 | T | 1938 | 1963 | 1985 | 2005 | ||
H | 1927 | 1952 | 1996 | U | 1939 | 1964 | 1986 | 2006 | ||
I | V | 1940 | 1965 | 1987 | 2007 | |||||
J | 1928 | 1953 | 1977 | 1997 | W | 1941 | 1966 | 1988 | 2008 | |
K | 1929 | 1954 | 1978 | 1998 | X | 1942 | 1967 | 1989 | 2009 | |
L | 1930 | 1955 | 1979 | 1999 | Y | 1943 | 1968 | |||
M | 1931 | 1956 | 1980 | 2000 | Z | 1944 | 1969 |
Maandaanduidingen
Doorgaans wordt gewoon een nummering gebruikt voor de maanden: 1 = januari, 2 = februari, etc. Vanaf de jaren 70 worden voor de maande Oktober, November en December de letters O, N en D gebruikt.
Hou het bij de hand
Je kunt deze pagina natuurlijk in de favorieten van je browser zetten, uitprinten of gewoon de informatie kopieëren. Maar om de zaken makkelijker te maken heb ik een printbaar PDFje gemaakt. Net als in dit artikel worden de codes uitgelegd en de tabellen staan er natuurlijk ook in.
Download het gerust en schroom niet het te delen met anderen.
S&H datum code (NL) PDF
(after an article by Kuno Rotter andDietrich Arbenz)
What do these strange orange letter and number combinations on your W28 mean? Perhaps you have noticed them, those enigmatic codes on the base of Siemens & Halske telephones or on telephone parts. Perhaps to your bafflement a fellow collector translated these to a date and production location as if it was nothing. And perhaps by now you have an inkling that they refer to locations and dates, and you found some incomplete information on them on the internet. Possibly even in German, making it hard to read for some.
Well, I have been there too. But I while ago I found an article, in German, on these codes explaining how they work and what they mean. So I finally had all the information I needed to decode them myself.
Below you will find a couple of tables and an explanation how they work. I also made a 2 page PDF with the same information, that you can download and print (on A5 format, double sided) and even laminate it, if you like 🙂. So you can keep it on your work bench or take it with you to flea markets, so you can check right away if all dates match on that Fg Tist 282 that you spotted.

You can find these codes on all kinds of S&H products and components, but this article is focussed on telephones and telephone parts. The coding is the same for all S&H products, but Siemens had more production facilities than those listed here. These codes were first put on the outside of telephones in 1929 or 1930. Before that they were only used on components that made up the telephones, like, hook switches, transmitters, receivers, handsets etc. Dails made before 1938 and capacitors usually do not have a date code, but rather just a production date, stating the month and year of production (for example 2 28, for February 1928).
A Siemens date code is made up of 3 parts. The first part is the production location, the middle the production year and the last part is the production month.

Pictured above is a typical early date code. In this case the item was made on production location B, Berlin Siemensstadt, in the year L, 1930 and in the 6th month, June.
Production location
The first part is the code for the production location. Coding styles vary through the years. Not all locations are listed, only those that produced telephone parts.
Location |
until 1938 |
1939-1945 |
after 1950 |
after 1974 |
Berlin-Siemensstadt | B | (1) | 1 | |
WWF/S&H München Hofmannstr. | (J) | (6) | 6 | |
Siemens Bocholt | 11 | CT | ||
Siemens Gladbeck | EX | |||
Siemens Leipzig | E3 | |||
Siemens Speyer | (12) | |||
Siemens Östereich | W | 15 | 15 | Q7 |
Vereinigte Bayerische Telefonwerke (VBT) | B | 31 | ||
OLAP Milano | O | 42 | ||
Elektrotechna Prag | C | 44 | ||
CGTT Siemens France | P | |||
Siemens Argentinien | 151 | L1 | ||
Siemens Brasilien, São Paulo | 199 | BR | ||
Siemens Brasilien, Curitiba | K7 | |||
Siemens Australien | AU | |||
Siemens Thessaloniki | 230 | N4 | ||
Siemens Austin/USA | E4 | |||
Siemens Cherry Hill/USA | SN |
( ) parts only such as dials, hook switches, capacitors etc.
Year codes
Below is a table with year letters. The blank cells indicate that letter was not used, mostly because they are similar to certain numbers like the o and i.
Letter | Year | Year | Year | Year | Letter | Year | Year | Year | Year | |
A | 1920 | 1945 | 1970 | 1990 | N | 1932 | 1957 | 1981 | 2001 | |
B | 1921 | 1946 | 1971 | 1991 | O | 1933 | 1958 | |||
C | 1922 | 1947 | 1972 | 1992 | P | 1934 | 1959 | 1982 | 2002 | |
D | 1923 | 1948 | 1973 | 1993 | Q | 1935 | 1960 | |||
E | 1924 | 1949 | 1974 | 1994 | R | 1936 | 1961 | 1983 | 2003 | |
F | 1925 | 1950 | 1975 | 1995 | S | 1937 | 1962 | 1984 | 2004 | |
G | 1926 | 1951 | 1976 | T | 1938 | 1963 | 1985 | 2005 | ||
H | 1927 | 1952 | 1996 | U | 1939 | 1964 | 1986 | 2006 | ||
I | V | 1940 | 1965 | 1987 | 2007 | |||||
J | 1928 | 1953 | 1977 | 1997 | W | 1941 | 1966 | 1988 | 2008 | |
K | 1929 | 1954 | 1978 | 1998 | X | 1942 | 1967 | 1989 | 2009 | |
L | 1930 | 1955 | 1979 | 1999 | Y | 1943 | 1968 | |||
M | 1931 | 1956 | 1980 | 2000 | Z | 1944 | 1969 |
Month codes
Usually just a number was used corresponding to the month in question: 1 = January, 2 = February, etc. From the 70s onward letters were used for the months October, O, November, N, and December, D.
Keeping it handy
You can of course bookmark this page, or print it, or just copy the information on it. But to make things easier I have made a printable document in PDF format. Just like in this article the codes are explained and the tables are included too.
Feel free to download it use it and share it with others.
Fg.tist.92b
Fg.20/165 IX
BR4 HELP AJB ??
Hi Margaret, thanks for you comment.
Fg Tist 92b = model nr. In this case a metal telephone from the 30s.
Fg 20/165 IX pertans to the eletronics used inside.
BR4 production date code
B Berlin (until 1939)
R = 1936
4 = april
Regards,
Arwin
Arvin – you’re the best. According to your scheme, I easily determine the date of the release of the telephon of my friend. Long live Arvin! Long live the internet!
Mykola Tsiapa {Oldphonerestore}
Thank you Mykola, glad the article was usefull to you.
Regards,
Arwin
I have a qunestion…
I have a Soiemsn und Halske telephone with F-gtist 159b2 on it and than there is bier 31/4
it looks like I can see one line occupied dus to a round sign, is it relay from 1931? and what are the marks telling
can you help me?
with kind regards
Maarten Oberman
Hi Maarten,
Thank you for your message. Not sure what the code is on your Phone, as 31/4 cannot be correct. The / should be a letter.
Fg Tist in stead of Vsa Tist indicated it not an early model. 31 does not mean the year of production. It indicates the production location. In this case 31 was used between 39 and 45 for VBT, Vereinigte Bayerische Telefonwerke.
The next digit should be the letter that indicates the year of production. 4 means april.
What ever that middle letter, your Phone was made between 39 and 45, as this was the only time that phones were produced at location 31.
Regards,
Arwin
The codes on my phone are BR4. How do I confirm that it was produced in either Berlin-Siemensstadt, or Vereinigte Bayerische Telefonwerke (VBT) in 1936 in April and not a later year?
Hi Bill, thank you for your message. I would not know at this time how to make that distinction. Do you read German? If so, I have scans of the original article on which my list was based.
Perhaps a clue is in there. It has been a while since I read it myself.
Regards,
Arwin
Can you please help me identify the phone?
Looking at the pictures on the internet the basics look like the W36 model. Below the phone are markings as in the last picture (the number 31V6 can be seen), which would mean that it was produced in 1940.
Here are pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/uAiiP4SsRQNgbj4DA
Thank you.
Hi,
It is indeed a Modell 36, produced in Berlin, 1940. I have also sent you an email about this.
Best regards,
Arwin