1917 Hamburg Steinway #'s...

[arensky]

Hi, I'm very happy! 

Today my college received it's first grand piano, a 1916 or 1917 Hamburg Steinway Model "O" serial # 177120 that was rebuilt 22 years ago. It is a peachy keen instrument, and now we can have a real concert series, run by guess who..c'est moi, c'est moi 

It's in beautiful condition, the kind lady who donated it did not play hard, so it's essentially brand new from 1983! But my question is this; at the rear of the frame, there are these numbers and a letter cast into the iron; I have never seen this before on a New York Steinway, or on a Hamburg that I can remember; never saw a Hamburg this old, though; the numbers are...

                                     3

1063   3   5         G

They look like that: here is a bad cell phone photo I took today of this area, at the rear (farthest away from the keyboard) of the piano; anyone know what this means?

[gfiore]

 The numbers are used on all Steinways, NY and Hamburg. They are the foundry numbers. They represent the the day, month, year the plate was cast at the foundry. Steinway used this system of numbers and letters in the past, but uses another numbering system now.
 As an example, the newly redesigned plate on the Model B will have B4 and some sequence of numbers cast into the plate at the tail end by the bass bridge.
 This piano #177,120 was made in 1916.

[arensky]

I will look again on my own piano, I can't believe I never noticed this! My piano is a New York "A", built in 1900...

[arensky]

The numbers are used on all Steinways, NY and Hamburg. They are the foundry numbers. They represent the the day, month, year the plate was cast at the foundry. Steinway used this system of numbers and letters in the past, but uses another numbering system now.
 As an example, the newly redesigned plate on the Model B will have B4 and some sequence of numbers cast into the plate at the tail end by the bass bridge.
 This piano #177,120 was made in 1916.

OK, lifted all the music off my piano and dusted and vacumed it, and found those foundry numbers! They're much smaller on my piano, a New York "A" completed on October 2nd 1900 according to the Steinway Company, who have all this information on file. My #'s are...

12/6.00
     
    1513

So my plate was cast on June 12th, 1900, correct? Now what does "1513" stand for? Was this the 1,513th plate like this one cast? Or is it something else?

And why are the German #'s so cryptic? I don't gt the pattern, but my inquring mind wants to know....

[gfiore]

 A, the German system and American system for numbering was done differently for reasons that have long been forgotten. The 1513 is a foundry casting number, and is meaningless without the # sytem guide for that year.

[arensky]

My third post makes it sound like my piano is is a filthy rathole of filth and dust! It's not, I clean it monthly, including putting a swiffer under the strings and over the soundboard to get the dust off, and cleaning the dust around the pins with Q-tips, before vacuming and blowing the dust off.

So 1513 is unknowable; was I right about 12/6.00 standing for June 12th 1900, or is this cryptic too?

[gfiore]

 No the June date is correct.