To continue the thread on piano roll dates, some Welte and Duo-Art
rolls have dates which I think are production dates.  They are not
dates of recording or copyright or catalog entry.

As Charles Davis Smith's rollography on Welte-Mignon rolls points out,
the Welte Purple Seal rolls almost always have a penciled notation at
one edge on the back of the roll.  These generally consist of the roll
number, a date in the form 3/24/27 or 10-24-28 and (usually) some
initials.  It is assumed that these notations were put there by the
punch operator.  My rolls show at least 6 different sets of initials
with a.z. and D.S. predominating.

The Poughkeepsie rolls often have pencil notations too, but I have not
been able to interpret them as dates.  These are the rolls with thin
leatherette leaders and parchment-like labels which are often hard to
read.  The notations are again on the back of the roll, on the roll
paper, along the seam between the leader and the paper.  They generally
have the roll number but in addition, following a "/" or "-" or "),"
they have numbers like 716, 1632, 4454, 4665.  I can't make these into
dates.  Does anyone have a theory what they mean?

Many later Duo-Art rolls have numbers stamped in green ink at the end
of the paper, after the reroll slot.  I assume these are also production
dates since duplicate rolls often have different numbers.  Some of the
numbers from my rolls are: 259, 229, 282, 288, 2510.  I interpret the
first two digits to be the year and the remaining the month of
production.

David Sharpe
Western Massachusetts