Pyramid Books Code Reference

I'm loooking for information on the ID codes used by Pyramid Books in
the mid 1960's. The paperbacks generally had two book identity codes,
one in the upper left corner and another on the spine, the former being
imbedded in the latter. Thus, the front cover might say "T-1974" for
the book "True Spirit Stories," while the spine says something like:

xxx-01974-xxx

Being eleven digits, it does not seem to be an ISBN, so I suspect the
prefix and suffix are printing or edition codes. However, I can't find
any information to indicate this. Google is bereft of useful data on my
searches, so any information you could provide would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Some Guy wrote:
I'm loooking for information on the ID codes used by Pyramid Books in
the mid 1960's. The paperbacks generally had two book identity codes,
one in the upper left corner and another on the spine, the former being
imbedded in the latter. Thus, the front cover might say "T-1974" for
the book "True Spirit Stories," while the spine says something like:

xxx-01974-xxx

Being eleven digits, it does not seem to be an ISBN, so I suspect the
prefix and suffix are printing or edition codes. However, I can't find
any information to indicate this. Google is bereft of useful data on my
searches, so any information you could provide would be appreciated.


I can't speak to the issue of Pyramid's codes specifically, but in
similar codes used by other publishers, the last three digits represent
the price--e.g. 195 for a $1.95 book. Is that a possibility here?

As to the first set of digits, this might be the publisher's code that
was part of the Standard Book Number (SBN), the predecessor of the ISBN.
But this didn't come into use in the US until the late '60s, IIRC, so
I don't know if it applies to the books you are asking about.


--Jon Meyers

Jon Meyers wrote:
Some Guy wrote:

I'm loooking for information on the ID codes used by Pyramid Books in
the mid 1960's. The paperbacks generally had two book identity codes,
one in the upper left corner and another on the spine, the former
being imbedded in the latter. Thus, the front cover might say
"T-1974" for the book "True Spirit Stories," while the spine says
something like:

xxx-01974-xxx

Being eleven digits, it does not seem to be an ISBN, so I suspect the
prefix and suffix are printing or edition codes. However, I can't
find any information to indicate this. Google is bereft of useful
data on my searches, so any information you could provide would be
appreciated.



I can't speak to the issue of Pyramid's codes specifically, but in
similar codes used by other publishers, the last three digits represent
the price--e.g. 195 for a $1.95 book. Is that a possibility here?

Ah, yes that does match. Thank you.

As to the first set of digits, this might be the publisher's code that
was part of the Standard Book Number (SBN), the predecessor of the ISBN.
But this didn't come into use in the US until the late '60s, IIRC, so I
don't know if it applies to the books you are asking about.


--Jon Meyers

Yes, the series of books I'm studying range from 1965 to 1969, and not
all of them have the same code. I suppose I need to read up on the SBN,
then. Thanks much.