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loungelistener    says:

Guide to Dating Curt Teich Postcards

This information is courtesy of the Lake County Discovery Museum, Wauconda, IL, home of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives.

The first series of cards printed (1900 to 1908) by the Teich Company used numbers only and ranged from 1 – 14989. The production dates were not recorded by the company at this time, but from copyright dates found on some of the cards, it has been determined that these cards were produced between 1900 and 1908.

The next card series began with either 'A' or 'R'* and were numbered from 1–124180. From 1908 until 1913, production dates are not clear and were determined by copyright dates found on a few of the cards. These numbers and dates should be used only as a guide. After 1913, dates began to appear occasionally in the order books kept by the company, and from 1922 on, production dates were well documented. The letter ‘A’ has been used as the standard.

* There are a few hundred cards ordered by the Woolworth Company that begin with a 'W' instead of the more typical 'A' or 'R'. It is believed that in some cases the same view was ordered from the Teich Company by another customer, and the card was printed with 'A' or 'R' preceding the number. A small number of cards also filed with this series begin with 'BS', 'DT', 'RG' and 'RT'. After approximately 1924, the 'A' or 'R' may not appear on the card at all.

A '-N' printed on the postcard after the production number indicates it was a reprinted card. Reports printed from the Teich Archives database may show other alpha characters (X, Y, Z) after the number which usually indicates it has been computer cataloged under more than one subject heading. However, early Teich postcards and V.O. Hammon postcards sometimes used the same number on two different views, and an 'A' or 'B' has been added by the Archives to the end of the production number.


1908 thru 1928

1908-1910 A1
1910 A19922
1911 A22998
1912 A32000
1913 A32236 – A45599
1914 A45600 – A5399
1915 A54000 – A61999
1916 A62000 – A71999
1917 A72000 – A77320
1918 A77321 – A77481
1919 A77482 – A81999
1920 A82000 – A83599
1921 A83600 – A87975
1922 A87976 – A92873
1923 A92874 – A96826
1924 A96827 – A102410
1925 A102411 – A107826
1926 A107827 – A112867
1927 A112868 – A118311
1928 A118312 – A124180


During the years 1929 and 1930, another new system was started. The company used the number of the card and then a '-' followed by the year:

1929–1930

1929 1-29 – 6262-29
1930 1-30 – 2934-30

In the middle of the “-30” series, the numbering system was again changed. A letter would denote the decade (A=1930s, B=1940s, C=1950s, D=1960s, E=1970s), and the number before the letter would indicate the year within that decade. Thus the next card printed after 2934-30 was 0A2935. In 1931 a new printing process was developed, and this style added another letter after the decade letter. An 'H' was added if the card was printed using the ‘Art Colortone Method’ also called "linen" cards. Later, a 'K' was used, beginning in the late 1940s, to indicate ‘Curteichcolor’ which is a chrome postcard printing process. From the 1930s through the 1970s, the following numbers were used:

1931 thru 1978

1930 0A2935 – 0A5363
1931 1A1 – 1A3637 1AH1 – 1AH565
1932 2A1 – 2A1562 2AH1 – 2AH1082
1933 3A1 – 3A552 3AH1 – 3AH1656
1934 4A1 – 4A654 4AH1 – 4AH2223
1935 5A1 – 5A650 5AH1 – 5AH2701
1936 6A1 – 6A668 6AH1 – 6AH2913
1937 7A1 – 7A710 7AH1 – 7AH3989
1938 8A1 – 8A923 8AH1 – 8AH3291
1939 9A1 – 9A982 9AH1 – 9AH2637
1940 0B1 – OB996 0BH1 – 0BH2755
1941 1B1 – 1B954 1BH1 – 1BH2693
1942 2B1 – 2B545 2BH1 – 2BH1581
1943 3B1 – 3B432 3BH1 – 3BH1722
1944 4B1 – 4B436 4BH1 – 4BH1657
1945 5B1 – 5B510 5BH1 – 5BH1509
1946 6B1 – 6B721 6BH1 – 6BH2667
1947 7B1 – 7B561 7BH1 – 7BH2149
1948 8B1 – 8B791 8BH1 – 8BH1993
1949 9B1 – 9B782 9BH1 – 9BH19049BK1 – 9BK129
1950 0C1 – 0C700 0CH1 – 0CH21250CK1 – 0CK448
1951 1C1 – 1C653 1CH1 – 1CH19371CK1 – 1CK3051CP1450 – 1CP2030*
1952 2C1 – 2C564 2CH1 – 2CH16802CK1 – 2CK4012CP2001 – 2CP2638*
1953 3C1 – 3C494 3CH1 – 3CH14333CK1 – 3CK15483CP2001 – 3CP2254*
1954 4C1 – 4C420 4CH1 – 4CH9094CK1 – 4CK21944CP2001 – 2CP2109*
1955 5C1 – 5C230 5CH1 – 5CH7055CK1 – 5CK30915CP2001 – 5CP2049*
1956 6C1 – 6C100 6CH1 – 6CH2286CK1 – 6CK31106CP2001 – 6CP2022*
1957 7C1 – 7C8 7CH1 – 7CH927CK1 – 7CK3151
1958 8CH1 – 8CH62 8CK1 – 8CK3280
1959 9CH1 – 9CH6 9CK1 – 9CK3023
1960 0DK1 – 0DK2443
1961 1DK1 – 1DK2385
1962 2DK1 – 2DK2073
1963 3DK1 – 3DK2035
1964 4DK1 – 4DK1936
1965 5DK1 – 5DK2006
1966 6DK1 – 6DK1957
1967 7DK1 – 7DK1795
1968 8DK1 – 8DK1477
1969 9DK1 – 9DK1330
1970 0EK1 – 0EK885
1971 1EK1 – 1EK785
1972 2EK1 – 2EK699
1973 3EK1 – 3EK561
1974 4EK1 – 4EK392 4ED1 – 4ED558**
1975 5EK1 – 5EK537 5ED1 – 5ED981**
1976 6EK1 – 6EK689 6ED1 – 6ED954**
1977 7EK1 – 7EK454 7ED1 – 7ED368**
1978 8EK1 – 8EK116 8ED1 – 8ED187**

* The 'P' indicates the 'C.T. Photochrome' process. Most of the cards printed with this new process were reprints of cards the Teich Company produced in other styles.

** In 1974 the Teich Company was sold to Regensteiner Publishers also in Chicago. The Teich Company continued to operate in the same building and continued printing Teich postcards until 1978 when the plant closed. The 'ED' series postcards are Curteichcolor 3-D natural color reproduction and are international size.


In 1929 another series of cards originated referred to as the 'D' series. This series consists of different types of printed pieces, although many of the early numbers are postcards. Other types of materials include: blotters, brochures, pamphlets, letterheads, envelopes, souvenir booklets, fold-out postcards,and oversize advertising pieces.

D Series

1929 D1- D558
1930 D559 – D1100
1931 D1101 – D1720
1932 D1721 – D2400
1933 D2401 – D3200
1934 D3201 – D3650
1935 D3651 – D4200
1936 D4201 – D4750
1937 D4751 – D5200
1938 D5201 – D5700
1939 D5701 – D6200
1940 D6201 – D6470
1941 D6471 – D6790
1942 D6791 – D7090
1943 D7091 – D7435
1944 D7436 – D7685
1945 D7686 – D8000
1946 D8001 – D8492
1947 D8493 – D8741
1948 D8742 – D9105
1949 D9106 – D9450
1950 D9451 – D9725
1951 D9726 – D9971
1952 D9972 – D10203
1953 D10204 – D10431
1954 D10432 – D10713
1955 D10714 – D11134
1956 D11135 – D11600
1957 D11601 – D11935
1958 D11936 – D12352
1959 D12353 – D12772
1960 D12773 – D13075
1961 D13076 – D13355
1962 D13356 – D13612
1963 D13613 – D13822
1964 D13823 – D14095
1965 D14096 – D14390
1966 D14391 – D14796
1967 D14797 – D15261
1968 D15262 – D15684
1969 D15685 – D16231
1970 D16232 – D17000
1971 D17001 – D17770
1972 D17771 – D18600
1973 D18601 – D19325
1974–1978 D19326 – D20363*

* The company continued printing 'D' cards after it was sold in 1974, but the new orders were not written in the company books. The last 'D' card printed before the plant closed in 1978 was D20363.


Several smaller series of postcards were printed at the same time as the main series of cards. One group began with two letters before the number of the card. These two letters could be AD, AC, AH, AP, AS, RC, RD, RH, RP, RS, WC, OR WP. The second letter in the code often indicates the process – the 'C' usually means C.T. Colorchrome, 'D'– Doubletone, 'S'– Sepia, 'H'– C.T. Handcolored. 'RC' has been used below as the standard. The dates for this series are approximate and were derived from the company records or from copyright dates on the postcards.

'RC' Cards 1912– 1925

1912 RC1 – RC360
1913 RC361 – RC1800
1914 RC1801 – RC4500
1915 RC4501 – RC6680
1916 RC6681 – RC8842
1917 RC8843 – RC10193
1918 RC10194 – RC10566
1919 RC10567 – RC12318
1920
1921
1922
1923 RC12637 – RC14175
1924 RC14176 – RC14528
1925 RC14529 – RC14804

If you have trouble reading this posting, a PDF file of the same information is also available here.
Originally posted at 11:10PM, 13 February 2008 PDT (permalink)
loungelistener edited this topic 52 months ago.