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From: Jerry in North Carolina
Remote Name: 205.188.117.10
While certain numbered series may have been reserved for certain type of steins (for example, maybe all the etched steins were numbered between 6000 - 6999, and those by a certain designer/artist were numbered 6500 - 6799), there is nothing within the model number that would indicate when the stein was made. A model number that was assigned in 1885 may still be being produced today if the company is still in business. Most companies did not change the model number when the mold wore out and was reproduced. As an example, the Reinhold Merkelbach beehive character stein is model number 1384, however over the years, the number of bees around the hive was lessened each time the mold was remade - yet they all have the same model number. One could assume, however, that if the series for a type of stein runs from 500 - 1000, probably model #500 was designed prior to model #750. However, that may only indicate the chronological order of the design, not the age of the produced stein.
Jerry