# What are the seemingly random letters printed on Duncans?

**URL:** https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740
**Category:** General Yo-Yo
**Created:** [April 27, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740 "2021-04-27T08:07:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Lido](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/lido/32/173650_2.png) [@Lido](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/Lido)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740/1 "2021-04-27T08:07:58Z")

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I got a Freehand XT a little while ago and it had some random letters on the cap and also along the edge where the string gap begins (outer edge where you can clearly see it). If you look at some of the pictures of the Big Fun here on YYE, you can see some letters also.

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/yoyoexpert1/original/4X/0/d/0/0d0531cf9b2ae2ad6984ea8cc7e48a0cfb5e2da5.jpeg)

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### Author: ![Shapapy](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/shapapy/32/141199_2.png) [@Shapapy](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/Shapapy)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2021, 10:54am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740/2 "2021-04-27T10:54:30Z")

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They are likely indicators of which production run they were a part of. I have a couple of Butterfly XTs and they both have similar letters starting with A and ending with RK. I’d assume the other two letters in the middle indicate how recent they were made depending on how far down the alphabet they are.

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### Author: ![bjardin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/bjardin/32/129600_2.png) [@bjardin](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/bjardin)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740/3 "2021-04-28T11:53:04Z")

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Those are date codes.

Date codes are one of the requirements to pass the safety testings. Not many yo-yo companies do safety testings to you rarely see this.

It is also an indicator of the production run. Let’s say something is wrong with the production run ABCDE, we can easily pull out the ABCDE batch instead of the entire inventory.

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### Author: ![Lido](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.yoyoexpert.com/lido/32/173650_2.png) [@Lido](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/u/Lido)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://forums.yoyoexpert.com/t/what-are-the-seemingly-random-letters-printed-on-duncans/337740/4 "2021-04-28T19:53:33Z")

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Thanks for the reply and info. Now we can try to crack the date encoding while were taking a break from yo-yoing. 🙂