John,
This is great information. It will help me track down missing
catalogue numbers. I'm currently working on 1969.
Does anyone happen to know what titles 2068 and 2078 were?
Jeff
On Jan 28, 2010, at 11:12 AM, jwwoolley wrote:
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Vorzimmer <jvorzimmer@...>
> wrote:
>> I'm not even
>> sure what the letter designations mean. I do know that the letter D
>> stood for double on those books that were "double size", I don't know
>> what the R, S, T, and K just before the catalog numbers mean.
>
> Those letters are price codes. Books without a prefix were 25 cents.
> An s or G prefix means 35 cents, k 40 cents, L 45 cents, d 50 cents, R
> 60 cents, T 75 cents, M 95 cents, P $1.25, Q $1.50. (X and C came
> later, for even higher prices.) The capitalization of the prefixes is
> inconsistent, except that G and L are always capitalized. This scheme
> is constant for all the old Gold Medals, except that:
>
> 1. 184, 192, 198, and 338 are marked "Gold Medal Giant", and have 35
> cent cover prices and no letter prefix. (G205, G207, and G212 -- the
> only G prefixes -- are also marked "Gold Medal Giant".) The s prefix
> was first used on s312, and invariably for 35-cent books beginning
> with
> s339.
>
> 2. s1354 (the 2nd printing of John D. MacDonald's SLAM THE BIG
> DOOR) is
> cover-priced 50 cents. (I think this must indicate a last-minute
> change
> of mind about what the price should be.)
>
> 3. Canadian printings always use the same numbering (including the
> prefix) as the American printings, but are usually priced higher.
> When
> American printings were to be sold in Canada, the price-markup was
> done
> sometimes by printing the Canadian price on the cover of the American
> printing, and sometimes by affixing a round yellow sticker saying
> "Gold
> 35c Medal" over the printed (American) cover price.
>
> 4. British printings were numbered without any reference to the
> American/Canadian printings; as far as I know they never used the
> letter
> prefixes.
>
> Fawcett Crest books had an identical prefixing scheme to the Fawcett
> Gold Medals; I don't know whether there were any Crest exceptions.
> All
> the Fawcett Red Seals were sold at 35 cents.
>
> -- John Woolley
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