Can a serial number tell you when something was made?
The 1st three numbers of your serial number will always provide your manufacture date. The 1st number is the YEAR of manufacture; the 2nd & 3rd numbers indicate the MONTH of manufacture.
For the serial number the typical format is to have the 4th, 5th, and 6th characters to reference when the product was built. The first character is the year date (Y) and the next two (WW), the week in that year it was made. Hope this helps you and anwsers your questions.
A product's batch number is the key to knowing when it was manufactured. You can usually find it printed or stamped somewhere on the bottom of the container. Each brand uses its own batch number system to keep track of dates.
What does a serial number tell you? A serial number is a unique code that helps you track each item separately. It can tell you where the item was made and when, which is useful for keeping track of warranties and knowing how old the item is.
Most manufacturers have online databases where consumers can enter the serial number and receive instant information about the product. These databases are often accessible through the manufacturer's website or through third-party platforms that aggregate multiple manufacturers' data.
The 1st three numbers of your serial number will always provide your manufacture date. The 1st number is the YEAR of manufacture; the 2nd & 3rd numbers indicate the MONTH of manufacture.
A VIN is usually composed of:
17 characters including digits and capital letters, that acts as a unique identifier for your car. The VIN number tells you when and where the car was built. It tells you the manufacturer, year, make and model, and the trim level including unique features and specifications.
Look for your car's vehicle identification number (VIN), which you can decode to find its production date. Typically, VIN numbers are located toward the bottom of vehicle windshields, but if you don't see yours there, you can also check out your registration or your insurance policy's declarations page.
Use-by dates are about safety
This is the most important date to remember. Never eat food after the use-by date, even if it looks and smells ok, as it could make you very ill. You can eat food until midnight on the use-by date shown on a product, but not after, unless the food has been cooked or frozen.
Go to any grocery store and pick up a packaged product. If you choose a packet of food, a bottled beverage, a cleaning product, or an over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical, you will likely find a date code somewhere on the product packaging.
Can you track something with a serial number?
Serial Number Tracking is a system with which you can track individual units of an item right from its creation through to its sale. Each unit will possess a unique identification code which will help you find out which unit was sold to whom.
The age is generally encoded into the serial number. Many manufacturers do it differently and most have changed the way they do it over the years. Below are the most popular brands and how they encode the year within the last 20 years or so. For older equipment Google can be pretty helpful.

Serial numbers play a crucial role in demonstrating provenance, authenticity and ownership.
Product date code: an alpha-numeric code found on your product that indicates the year and week in which your product was made. In addition to a date code, many products will have a version code and/or serial number.
SNDeepInfo — service for checking a serial numbers of phones, smartphones, cameras, household appliances and IMEI phones of all brands.
Armed with a serial number, law enforcement can enter your stolen property into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) stolen items database. The NCIC database was created in 1967 to aid law enforcement in recovering stolen property, finding wanted individuals, and locating missing persons.
A serial date consists of two parts: The whole number portion of a serial date represents the number of days elapsed since "January 0, 1900". For instance, a date of December 31, 2020 is the serial number 44196. The fractional portion of a serial date represents the time of day.
These are not considered serial numbers and are not used for the purpose of verifying authenticity. Rather, these are date codes consisting of letters and numbers (or in the case of older bags, simply numbers) that identify the date and location the bag was manufactured.
Since the ID tag is missing, you need to check the rear engine flange on the left side of the tractor. Case stamped the serial number and model there as well. Once you do this, if you take 4 from the first two numbers of the seven digit serial, you will know what year it is.
P.S. The letters "I", "O" and "Q" are never used in a VIN. Decode: 9th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture. 10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture.
What digit of the VIN tells the year?
Year The 10th character indicates the model year. There's only one slot for this, and not all letters and numbers are used, resulting in repetition. An R could signal either 2024 or 1994, for example.
You can tell the month and year of manufacture by the stamps on the car windows. The manufacturing date is usually a single digit, corresponding to the calendar year's last digit (similar to the VIN). Thus, the digit “6” can mean 1996, 2006, and 2016.
Determining Manufacture Date
The two letters at the beginning of the serial number tell you the month and year it was made. Where is my model and serial number located? The first letter identifies the month. The second letter identifies the year.
Getting Your Car's Build Sheet By VIN
You can recreate a build sheet for a car, but you'll need the car's unique identifier. This number can be found under the windshield on the driver's side of the dashboard, or in the door jamb area of the driver's side door.
NICB's VINCheck is a free lookup service provided to the public to assist in determining if a vehicle may have a record of an insurance theft claim, and has not been recovered, or has ever been reported as a salvage vehicle by participating NICB member insurance companies.