Printer L - position on plate

[hi Lindsay!]

When I got 2 10€ bills, with shortcode L038G1/L038G2 i noticed they had a complete different serial. As far as I know, the first two digits are somehow equivalent to the position on the sheet in the French system. As user R/J mentioned in another topic, there might be a constant added to either the x or the y value, as France ran out on serials.

I understand this with the last digit of the shortcode. 1 means, the serial starting with U3. 2 - serial U4 etc. They just added the value 2. But I cannot see any system with the short code letter (Y axis on the sheet). There are L038Gx-notes with 7 as the second digit in the serial, as well as 9. (Ux7, Ux9) It's the same with every letter. They seem to stick to one digit within a group of notes (e.g. all my L038G2 notes start with U47) but I can see no system behind this. Neither I have enough notes to know for sure. So, what do you think? Does anyone have a clue or am I wrong and I did not understand the French numbering system at all?

[R/J]

The system is as follows:

In the simple form:
U01 = position A1
U02 = position B1
and so on

For the , it gets more complicated, as (1) they ran out of numbers and (2) there are three different sizes of sheets. Some more data can be found here.

(1) means that for the newer notes, you don't start at 01, but at 33.
(2) only applies to older notes, as newer notes are all 8x4, maximum G4 (except the very newest (L052, using an older number system), which are apparently 9x6, maximum I6).

[hi Lindsay!]

Thanks for the hint, R/J!

There is one thing I still don't understand. Why are the second digits of the serial not following this logic? For example:

L038G1 - position G1 - serial U39xxx
L038G2 - position G2 - serial U47xxx

(as both of them are postion "g", shouldn't they have the same second digit in the serial?)

Another example

L040E1 - position E1 - serial U37xxx
L040E2 - position E2 - serial U45xxx

(as both of them are postition "e", shouldn't they have the sane second digit in the serial?)

[R/J]

That would be true only if the sheet size is 10xwhatever. (So for all but the oldest French )

In your example, the sheet size is 8x4, so if you add one 'letter' you move forward 8 places in the numbering system. Which is exactly what you see.

So the numbering order is A1, B1, C1... A2, B2, C2... and not (as you may expect) A1, A2, A3... B1, B2...

[hi Lindsay!]

Thanks a lot! I think I was confused by the Austrian numbering system for