We didn't dive deep enough into the modern Borsalinos and maybe we should have. Looking more closely you make a good case that there are modern labels that seem to refer to a date, whereas others don't. I looked at all the labels of modern Borsalinos I kept a picture of and this is what I found. No need to post the pictures of the modern dot matrix labels with the six numbers on them again. Nothing on those points towards a production year. well nothing obvious at least.
My theory is that these were in use from 1984 until 1993. I think it must have been 1984, because this was a watershed year for Borsalino after the death of Teresio Usuelli in 1983, who had led the company (after the death of Teresio Borsalino in 1939) until 1979. The factory moved in 1984 to a different location and left the original location in the centre of Alessandria.
On to the others. These are ten of the ones I found.
All of the first two numbers before the letter A or P of these range between 94 and 13 (which was the latest I found). For a moment I thought the P could be referring to "Paglia" (straw) because I found it on that one, but it is on felts as well. All of them have a six digit number after the first to numbers and the letter, same as before.
Unfortunately none of these have any other date on them or came with a receipt that could confirm the theory. Maybe others here have ones that are dated; we'll have to see.
For now it seems plausible but not yet confirmed that for these labels the first two numbers do refer to the production year. I'd call that a result.
My theory is that these were in use from 1984 until 1993. I think it must have been 1984, because this was a watershed year for Borsalino after the death of Teresio Usuelli in 1983, who had led the company (after the death of Teresio Borsalino in 1939) until 1979. The factory moved in 1984 to a different location and left the original location in the centre of Alessandria.
On to the others. These are ten of the ones I found.
All of the first two numbers before the letter A or P of these range between 94 and 13 (which was the latest I found). For a moment I thought the P could be referring to "Paglia" (straw) because I found it on that one, but it is on felts as well. All of them have a six digit number after the first to numbers and the letter, same as before.
Unfortunately none of these have any other date on them or came with a receipt that could confirm the theory. Maybe others here have ones that are dated; we'll have to see.
For now it seems plausible but not yet confirmed that for these labels the first two numbers do refer to the production year. I'd call that a result.
