CZ Serial Number Lookup

Enter a CZ serial number to estimate the year it was made — using the CZ manufacturer's own published FAQ statement. CZ does not date its guns by the serial at all: the maker shares the year of manufacturing only — "The only data we can share is the year of manufacturing" — stamped as two plain digits beside the C.I.P. proof marks on the barrel, chamber or bolt. Enter those two digits here; because the stamp carries no century, every reading shows both candidate years and never picks one.

What this chart actually covers. CZ publishes no serial-number chart, and the maker states the reason outright: "The only data we can share is the year of manufacturing." That year is stamped as two plain digits beside the company crest and the C.I.P. proof stamp on barrel, chamber or bolt, and the maker states it "is always equal to the year of a C.I.P. proof test". This tool prints exactly that: the digits read as the proof/manufacturing year — always as its candidate years (19NN and 20NN), because the stamp carries no century and the maker publishes no rule to recover it. No model, shipment or history data is claimed from a CZ serial. Production before 1945 is refused, not guessed: it falls outside the era the convention is documented for, whose start date is not established. A modern gun with no visible code may be normal — the maker's own word is "typically", not "always".
Look up your CZ serial number

Enter the number exactly as stamped — including any letter prefix.

Open the CZ serial lookup →

How dating a CZ by serial number works

Most serial charts give one number per year. CZ is different, and using the wrong method gives the wrong year — so it is worth knowing what the chart actually asserts.

two digits beside the proof marks — proof year, which the maker states is the year of manufacture

The CZ FAQ states the rule in one sentence: the date of manufacturing shown by the two-digit code "is always equal to the year of a C.I.P. proof test". Those two plain digits are stamped in the company of the company crest and the C.I.P. stamp on the barrel, chamber or bolt. There is no serial-to-year chart: the maker states no model, shipment or history data behind a CZ serial number.

The digits carry no century and the maker publishes no rule to recover it, so this tool never prints a single year: code 18 reads 1918 or 2018 and both are shown. What resolves the pair is production context — a model only built in one century picks itself — and this database carries no per-model production windows to do that resolving. The start date of the stamp is likewise not established: years before 1945 are refused rather than invented.

00 = 1900 or 2000
01 = 1901 or 2001
02 = 1902 or 2002
03 = 1903 or 2003
04 = 1904 or 2004
05 = 1905 or 2005
06 = 1906 or 2006
07 = 1907 or 2007
08 = 1908 or 2008
09 = 1909 or 2009
10 = 1910 or 2010
11 = 1911 or 2011
12 = 1912 or 2012
13 = 1913 or 2013
14 = 1914 or 2014
15 = 1915 or 2015
16 = 1916 or 2016
17 = 1917 or 2017
18 = 1918 or 2018
19 = 1919 or 2019
20 = 1920 or 2020
21 = 1921 or 2021
22 = 1922 or 2022
23 = 1923 or 2023
24 = 1924 or 2024
25 = 1925 or 2025
26 = 1926 or 2026
27 = 1927 or 2027
28 = 1928 or 2028
29 = 1929 or 2029
30 = 1930 or 2030
31 = 1931 or 2031
32 = 1932 or 2032
33 = 1933 or 2033
34 = 1934 or 2034
35 = 1935 or 2035
36 = 1936 or 2036
37 = 1937 or 2037
38 = 1938 or 2038
39 = 1939 or 2039
40 = 1940 or 2040
41 = 1941 or 2041
42 = 1942 or 2042
43 = 1943 or 2043
44 = 1944 or 2044
45 = 1945 or 2045
46 = 1946 or 2046
47 = 1947 or 2047
48 = 1948 or 2048
49 = 1949 or 2049
50 = 1950 or 2050
51 = 1951 or 2051
52 = 1952 or 2052
53 = 1953 or 2053
54 = 1954 or 2054
55 = 1955 or 2055
56 = 1956 or 2056
57 = 1957 or 2057
58 = 1958 or 2058
59 = 1959 or 2059
60 = 1960 or 2060
61 = 1961 or 2061
62 = 1962 or 2062
63 = 1963 or 2063
64 = 1964 or 2064
65 = 1965 or 2065
66 = 1966 or 2066
67 = 1967 or 2067
68 = 1968 or 2068
69 = 1969 or 2069
70 = 1970 or 2070
71 = 1971 or 2071
72 = 1972 or 2072
73 = 1973 or 2073
74 = 1974 or 2074
75 = 1975 or 2075
76 = 1976 or 2076
77 = 1977 or 2077
78 = 1978 or 2078
79 = 1979 or 2079
80 = 1980 or 2080
81 = 1981 or 2081
82 = 1982 or 2082
83 = 1983 or 2083
84 = 1984 or 2084
85 = 1985 or 2085
86 = 1986 or 2086
87 = 1987 or 2087
88 = 1988 or 2088
89 = 1989 or 2089
90 = 1990 or 2090
91 = 1991 or 2091
92 = 1992 or 2092
93 = 1993 or 2093
94 = 1994 or 2094
95 = 1995 or 2095
96 = 1996 or 2096
97 = 1997 or 2097
98 = 1998 or 2098
99 = 1999 or 2099
No published worked example — and none is guessed. The maker publishes the rule but no sample code or decoded gun, so there is nothing to check a decoder against: this tool answers with the maker's own sentence and refuses everything that sentence does not cover. Note also the maker's own hedge on the stamp: it is "typically" present beside the C.I.P. marks, not always — so "the code is nowhere to be found" can be a normal outcome, not a failed lookup.
Serial numbers are not a factory letter. The chart gives the last serial recorded for each production year, model by model. A result sitting on a year boundary is an estimate from that chart, not a certificate.

If your model is not listed, the published chart we hold does not cover it — the tool will say so rather than guess.

Questions

Why does my serial number not give a year?

It falls in a gap between the published ranges, or in a model year the chart does not cover — the tool will show the nearest documented range instead of guessing. A public lookup should not invent an answer. For a CZ: the serial number itself carries no date — the date lives only in the two-digit proof-year stamp; a modern gun may show no code at all (the maker's word is "typically", never "always"), which is not a failed read; pre-1945 production is outside the documented era of the stamp, whose start date is not established; and a valid code never resolves to one year, because the digits carry no century. None of these is rounded to a neighbouring year.

How accurate is this?

The ranges are reproduced exactly as published in the CZ manufacturer's own published FAQ statement. That is not a factory letter — for a definitive date, the factory records are the authority. The rule is the manufacturer's own published FAQ statement (the CZ-USA FAQ points to the same page). Proof year equals manufacturing year for CZ because the maker states it, not by general inference. Both candidate years are always shown: a future candidate is listed because the maker's rule lists it — the tool annotates what the calendar and the documented era say about it, and drops or prefers nothing. No position guide is printed beyond the maker's own (crest and C.I.P. mark, barrel/chamber/bolt).

Where does the data come from?

the CZ Firearms FAQ (czfirearms.com) — the manufacturer's own page — The manufacturer's own published FAQ: the only maker source this rule needs (the CZ-USA FAQ redirects to the same page). What the maker states is shipped; what it does not state — a century rule, the stamp's start date, any model or history data behind a serial — is refused or printed as candidates, never supplied by inference.

Other makes

Serial-number charts are published for: