The other day I was testing myself to see if I could remember all of the Gillette date codes (I know, I really need to get a life), and I was cruising along just fine until I hit the 70's, because I know that "U" codes are for 1974, but it wasn't coming out right. So, I took a look at the Gillette date code site, and, what do you know? Gillette skipped over the letter "Q" entirely. Any theories on this?
I have always assumed that they omitted the Q because it would be too hard to distinguish from the O.
Okay, to counter the currently accepted theory, wouldn't it have been a money saver to alter and re-use the "O" stamp to make it look like a "Q"? Do you really think the Gillette company was that concerned with date code mix-ups?
25 is a nice round number compared to 26, quarter, half century and all. They should have started in 1950 with an "A" in my opinion.
It may be a die press issue. If the Q isn't pressed in properly it becomes an O. I don't think they were worried about people misreading it. I think they were worried stamping errors creating misleading date codes. That's my theory and I'm stickin' with it.
I also thought that was kind of weird. Apparently, even though the date codes weren't on the razors, they were keeping track. Maybe?
This is a good theory, but have you ever looked closely at the stamps? They are amazingly detailed and clear, I think if they wanted to put a "Q", they could have. I just don't think that a "Q" would have been any more misread as an "O" than the "G".
The reason 1951 did not start with "A" was because they simply adopted the already established dating methodology which had they had been using on their blades since 1930, the first full year of the New slotted blades.
I think they just wanted people milling around scratching their heads wondering, "What happened to the "Q"?"
actually now that i look at the site, Q started off as a high ranking nazi and then may have become a charlie up in the trees. ....... hence the skip.
