Dating Carter's Inks

[sodetraveler]

After reading up on manufacturer's marks I decided to unwrap a few (hundred) of my bottles and see what was printed on the bases.

Something I never noticed before was that a couple of the Carter's Cone Inks had numbers on the base in addition to the standard CARTER'S marking.

One of them has 1897 marked on the base and another has what looks like 1899 marked on the base - BTW their mold engraver sucked!

They match fairly close to the dates I estimated for the dumps. Could these be the dates of manufacture?

I'd post pictures, but you guys know what a Carter's Cone Ink looks like - and the base markings too for that matter!

Please let me know if any of you have heard anything about these number markings.

Thanks!

[epackage]

Yes those are the dates...