Compliments of the Curt Teich Archives at the Lake County Museum ©1994, The Lake County Museum
The first series of cards printed 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 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.
Year Production Numbers:
1908-10 A1
1910 A19922
1911 A22998
1912 A32000
1913 A32236 —A45599
1914 A45600 —A53999
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
1924 A107827 —A112867
1927 A112868 —A118311
1928 A118312 —A124180
An "-N" after a number indicates it was a reprinted card. Any other alpha character after the number indicates it has more than one subject listing or the same number was used on two different views. (This is mainly found with the very early Teich postcards and with V.0. Hammon postcards.)
*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 by another company 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.
During the years 1929 and 1930, another new system was started. The company used a "-" followed by the year:
Year Production Numbers
1929 1-29 —6262-29
1930 1-30 —2934-30
In the middle of the "-30" period, 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 another letter was added after the decade letter. This indicated different printing processes. An "H" was added if the card was printed using the "Art Colortone Method" (linen cards). A "K" was used to indicate "Curteichcolor" which is a chrome postcard printing process. From the 1930s through 1970s the following numbers were used:
Year Production Numbers:
1930 0A-2935 —0A-5363
1931 1A-1 —1A-3637 1A-H1 —1A-H565
1932 2A-1 —2A-1562 2A-H1 —2A-H1082
1933 3A-1 —3A-552 3A-H1 —3A-H1656
1934 4A-1 —4A-654 4A-H1 —4A-H2223
1935 5A-1 —5A-650 5A-H1 —5A-H2701
1936 6A-1 —6A-668 6A-H1 —6A-H2913
1937 7A-1 —7A-710 7A-H1 —7A-H3989
1933 8A-1 —8A-923 8A-H1 —8A-H3291
1939 9A-1 —9A-982 9A-H1 —9A-H2637
1940 0B-1 —0B-996 0B-H1 —0B-H2755
1941 1B-1 —1B-954 1B-H1 —1B-H2693
1942 2B-1 —2B-545 2B-H1 —2B-H1581
1943 3B-1 —3B-432 3B-H1 —3B-H1722
1944 4B-1 —4B-436 4B-H1 —4B-H1657
1945 5B-1 —5B-510 5B-H1 —5B-H1509
1946 6B-1 —6B-721 6B-H1 —6B-H2667
1947 7B-1 —7B-561 7B-H1 —7B-H2149
1948 8B-1 —8B-791 8B-H1 —8B-H1993
1949 9B-1 —9B-782 9B-H1 —9B-H1904 9B-K1 —9B-K129
1950 0C-1 —0C-700 0C-H1 —0C-H2125 0C-K1 —0C-K448
1951 1C-1 —1C-653 1C-H1 —1C-H1937 1C-K1 —1C-K305
1952 2C-1 —2C-564 2C-H1 —2C-H1680 2C-K1 —2C-K401
1953 3C-1 —3C-494 3C-H1 —3C-H1433 3C-K1 —3C-K1548
1954 4C-1 —4C-420 4C-H1 —4C-H909 4C-K1 —4C-K2194
1955 5C-1 —5C-230 5C-H1 —5C-H705 5C-K1 —5C-K3091
1956 6C-1 —6C-100 6C-H1 —6C-H228 6C-K1 —6C-K3110
1957 7C-1 —7C-8 7C-H1 —7C-H92 7C-K1 —7C-K3151
1958 3C-H1 —8C-H62 8C-K1 —8C-K3280
1959 9C-H1 —9C-H6 9C-K1 —C-K3023
1960 0D-K1 —0D-K2443
1961 1D-K1 —1D-K2385
1962 2D-K1 —2D-K2073
1963 3D-K1 —3D-K2035
1964 4D-K1 —4D-K1936
1965 5D-K1 —5D-K2006
1966 6D-K1 —6D-K1957
1967 7D-K1 —7D-K1795
1968 8D-K1 —8D-K1477
1969 9D-K1 —9D-K1330
1970 0E-K1 —0E-K885
1971 1E-K1 —1E-K787
1972 2E-K1 —2E-K699
1973 3E-K1 —2E-K561
1974 4E-K1 —4E-K392 4E-D1 —4E-D558
1975 5E-K1 —5E-K637 SE-D1 —5E-D981
1976 6E-K1 —6E-K689 6E-D1 —6E-D954
1977 7E-K1 —7E-K454 7E-D1 —7E-D368
1978 8E-K1 —8E-K116 SE-D1 —8E-D187*
- 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 international size and are printed as Curteichcolor 3-D natural color reproduction.