It might interest you to know that the location of date codes on early batteries may differ depending on if they were sold wet charged or dry charged. A wet charged battery would have a factory applied date code since its life had already started when charged. Location of that factory applied date code to be determined for 6V batteries.. (lead strap, top of terminal, in the tar?). But a date code would not be applied to a dry charged battery until the battery dealer filled and charged it. That's when the life of the battery for warranty purposes started.
Dealers who sold dry charged batteries and activated them were instructed to put the date code on the top of the negative terminal, per the 9-1-57 catalog ...and probably earlier? Negative terminal was specified because the positive terminal frequently corroded more and the date code would disappear.
Also please note no Delco battery had a catalog number until 1957. So any Cat. 412 battery, like shown in the 53-55 TIMJG, is a 6V replacement.
Cat.412 is deciphered as follows:
4 means it is a 400 series OEM battery
1 means group 1 size
2 means it was wet charged when sold (an odd number like 3 is always dry charged)
Similarly, any '55 or '56 batteries with catalog numbers 458 (wet) or 459 (dry) are replacements.
Additional information and photos of an original 6V battery are especially welcomed.
Dealers who sold dry charged batteries and activated them were instructed to put the date code on the top of the negative terminal, per the 9-1-57 catalog ...and probably earlier? Negative terminal was specified because the positive terminal frequently corroded more and the date code would disappear.
Also please note no Delco battery had a catalog number until 1957. So any Cat. 412 battery, like shown in the 53-55 TIMJG, is a 6V replacement.
Cat.412 is deciphered as follows:
4 means it is a 400 series OEM battery
1 means group 1 size
2 means it was wet charged when sold (an odd number like 3 is always dry charged)
Similarly, any '55 or '56 batteries with catalog numbers 458 (wet) or 459 (dry) are replacements.
Additional information and photos of an original 6V battery are especially welcomed.