Print Run

Almost every piece of printed material has a set of numbers that include certain information.

For example the box of catalog item 7022 has the print run number: 69 722 OA 03 68 sh
which indicates:

Anyone know what the first number (69) signifies ?

It may be associated with catalog number 7022. Older print runs seem to follow this pattern but 4 digit catalog numbers clearly can not always be represented by only 3 digits. Perhaps 3 digit catalog numbers were made into 4 digit ones by inserting the zero...? i.e. 722 became 7022 and 329 became 3029... and these numbers still reflect the old 3 digit catalog numbers...

OA signifies the size of the print run as follows:

The key is the word TOYMARKLIN ,each of this letters can be in the code
T=1  O=2  Y=3  M=4  A=5  R=6 K=7  L=8  I=9 N=0
Uppercase letter means thousands and lower case letter mean hundreds. Thus:
TNN means a print run size of 100.000
YN means a print run size of 30.000
Ra  means a print run size of 6.500
OA means a print run size of 25.000

It was printed March 1968

The last two characters seem to indicate the name of the printing company.
Here are the names that I have so far:

au - Aumüller Druck KG in Regensburg
br - Bruckmann KG, Munich
dk - Druckkommunikation, München
fi - J Fink, Ostfildern
fd - Fischer-Druck, Aichelberg
ho - Hoffmann Druck, Nürnberg
kl - Druckerei Ernst Klett, Stuttgart
kr - Körner Rotationsdruck, Sindelfingen
oe - Oehler Offset, Fellbach
Sc - Schatt, Stuttgart
sr - Schnitzer Druck GmbH, Korb
st - Stürtz AG, Würzburg
th - Thiemig AG, Munich
wd - Westermann Druck, Braunschweig
wf - Wenschow Franzis-Druck, München


All the "New Items" brochures from 1981 through 2000 and 2004 begin with "158 10". Not the Summer and Fall editions, just the "New Items" (typically printed in January).


Some Items come with a number of pieces of printed material. It is therefore possible to have more than one print run per item, other than the box. For example, with a locomotive you may get a service manual, exploded view diagrams, guarantee slip, digital notes, etc.

Information contributed by

Dale Schultz Brian Redman Wim

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