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Italian date code — two letters in a box

Italian proof marks and date codes · 1975 to 2020.
What it looks like
Two capital letters enclosed in a small square rectangle, near the proof marks.
Where it is on the gun
Usually the frame or the barrel flat, in and around the proof information.
Date range
1975 to 2020.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

The year of proof, encoded. Since 1975 Italy has used two capital letters in a box, and the sequence is published: BI is 1997, BL 1998, BM 1999, BN 2000, BP 2001, BS 2002, BT 2003, BU 2004, BZ 2005, CA 2006, CB 2007, CC 2008, CD 2009, CF 2010, CH 2011, CI 2012, CL 2013, CM 2014, CN 2015, CP 2016, CS 2017. On an Italian gun this is the most direct dating evidence that exists — a hard year, stamped by a state body, not an estimate from a serial chart.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It is the year of proof, not of manufacture: a barrel made in 2010 could be proved in 2012. Nor is the code alphabetical in any intuitive sense — the alphabet used is the Italian one, which has 21 letters and omits K, J, W, X and Y, and the proof house further skips O and Q to avoid confusion with zero, and G and R for reasons never stated. Guessing a year from the letters without the table is how people get this wrong.

Sources for this page

Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.

Related on this site

Makers whose guns carry marks like this:

Reading marks to identify and date a gun

Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.

Open the serial number lookup

Other italian proof marks and date codes

Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.