There is widespread fraud with Leupold scopes. There are many sellers describing their scopes as Leupold when in fact they are made in China and virtually worthless. Please be aware that Vari-X 3i 4.5-14-50mm scopes with a serial number of 503088AB is a very commonly sold Chinese fake scope being advertised as Leupold. Every Leupold scope produced since 1974 will have a letter included in the serial number acting as a date-code. Scopes manufactured prior to 1974 will typically have a five or six digit serial number without a prefix or suffix. Scopes using a letter as a prefix (the beginning of the serial number) were produced between 1974 and 1992.
Browning Serial Numbers
BROWNING SERIALIZATION 1975 TO CURRENT:
In 1975 Browning began using the two (2) letter code
system (located in the middle of the serial number) for
determining the year of manufacture. For example 'PN'
would be '89' indicating 1989.
LETTER NUMBER
Z 1
Y 2
X 3
W 4
V 5
T 6
R 7
P 8
N 9
M 10
PRE 1975 SERIALIZATION:
BOLT ACTION RIFLES (Safari, Medallion, & Olympian Models)
1959 - N/A
1962 No prefix (numeral-letter) before Ser. No. (i.e., only digits)
1963 3-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1964 4-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1965 5-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1966 6-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1967 7-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1968 8-single letter prefix or suffix by Ser. No.
1969 Single letter (Y, Z, or L) followed by last 2 digits of year of mfg. Prefix only.
1970 “Y70' prefix
1971 “L71' prefix
1972 “Z72' prefix
1973 “Y73' prefix
1974 “Z74' prefix
1975 “L75' prefix
B.A.R.
1967 “M7' suffix after Ser. No.
1968 “M8' suffix after Ser. No.
1969 “M69' suffix after Ser. No.
1970 “M70' suffix after Ser. No.
1971 “M71' suffix after Ser. No.
1972 “M72' suffix after Ser. No.
1973 “M73' suffix after Ser. No.
1974 “M74' suffix after Ser. No.
1975 “M75' suffix after Ser. No.
1976 “M76' suffix after Ser. No.
1976 to date New sequence with “RT” appearing in middle of Ser. No
.22 AUTO RIFLE (Grades I, II, and III)
1956-Mid. 1961 'T' prefix = LR, 'A' prefix = short
Mid. 1961 'A' changed to 'E' prefix 5 digits or less.
1961 “1T” or '1A' or “1E” prefix before Ser. No.
1962 “2T” or “2E” prefix before Ser. No.
1963 “3T” or “3E” prefix before Ser. No.
1964 “4T” or “4E” prefix before Ser. No.
1965 “5T” or “5E” prefix before Ser. No.
1966 “6T” or “6E” prefix before Ser. No.
1967 “7T” or “7E” prefix before Ser. No.
1968 “8T” or “8E” prefix before Ser. No.
1969 “69T” or “69E” prefix before Ser. No.
1970 “70T” or “70E” prefix before Ser. No.
1971 “71T” or “71E” prefix before Ser. No.
1972 “72T” or “72E” prefix before Ser. No.
1973 Japan production
T-BOLT RIFLE (T1 and T2)
1965 “X5' suffix after Ser. No.
1966 “X6' suffix after Ser. No.
1967 “X7' suffix after Ser. No.
1968 “X8' suffix after Ser. No.
1969 “X69' suffix after Ser. No.
1970 “X70' suffix after Ser. No.
1971 “X71' suffix after Ser. No.
1972 “X72' suffix after Ser. No.
1973 “X73' suffix after Ser. No.
1974 “X74' suffix after Ser. No.
1975 “X75' suffix after Ser. No.
Leupold Mark 4 PR 4.5-14x40
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Leupold Mark 4 LR/T 4.5-14x50
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Any used Leupold IMHO is a smart purchase. It should sell used for about $300-$400 depending on condition and reticle. eBay sold Leupolds usually fetch an additional 30%. You can determine when it was made by the serial number located on the center saddle section. Beginning in 1974, Leupold began letter coding riflescope serial numbers. All scopes produced during that year had the letter E as a prefix to the serial number. The next year the letter code was advanced to F, and so on through the alphabet. The letters I,O, and Q, were skipped so that they wouldn't be confused with numbers. When they reached Z in 1992 they started over at the beginning of the alphabet with letter A. This time they used a suffix.
Prefix
E - 1974
F - 1975
G - 1976
H - 1977
J - 1978
K - 1979
L - 1980
M - 1981
N - 1982
P - 1983
R - 1984
S - 1985
T - 1986
U - 1987
V - 1988
W -1989
X - 1990
Leupold Rifle Scope Serial Numbers
Y - 1991
Z - 1992
Suffix
1993 - A
1994 - B
1995 - C
1996 - D
1997 - E
Leupold Model Numbers
1998 - F
1999 - G
Counterfeit Leupold Scope Serial Numbers
2000 - H
2001 - J
2002 - K
2003 - L
Identify Leupold Scope
2004 - M