A certain online seller is offering 2010 American Standard Stratocasters, and their serial numbers begin with "US" followed by 8 numbers (the first two indicating the 2010 date):

Like this: US10123456

Other 2010 Strats I've looked at just have numbers: 10036771, for example.

What's going on? Is this a new numbering system?

michael

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Stratocasters: 1989 American, 1994 40th Anniversary American, 1997 American Sunburst, 2005 American Standard Olympic White, 2010 American Standard FSR Vintage White, 2010 Limited Edition American Standard - Ivory. Plus lots of Gibsons.

I just got a 2010 FSR AM std ivory strat and there's no US before the numbers.. just 100xxxxx... The Fender decoder did not recognize the serial.... cheers

It's my understanding this was a recent change - like maybe in May or June. Seems like people didn't like that the "10" would run into the other 8 digits because the "10" font was too similar to the font of the other 8 digits so they switched to the "US10" on USA made guitars. I haven't seen an MIM with a 2010 serial number yet (seems like the MIM numbers change over mid-year) so I suspect they will use an "M10" prefix.