Yes, both my polycoat and my SS 75B have serial numbers on both the slide and frame right above the dust cover. On my SS, there is a "12" just to the left of the crest and SN, and on my polycoat 75B there is an "09" in the same place. I'm assuming those are the production years since I got the SS brand new in 2012.
Well, it just goes to show that I shouldn't assume too much. Anyone know when they changed from the oval marking?
Due to the batch-production of some of the less popular models and variants, you will sometimes find NIB pistols that are relatively older. For example, I bought a '98 marked CZ 97B NIB in 2001. IIRC, at that time, the 97B had only been made in 1998 and 2000. The stainless models are really popular, so they don't hang around as long, I suspect.
To clarify, this doesn't mean that an older production year pistol has been sitting on the dealer's shelf for years. To give a specific example, CZ-USA did a promotion on the 75B SA model in the summer of either 2002 or 2003. (I think they even called it something like the "Summer Shooter's Special," or whatever. Probably sounded better in Czech...) Anyway, Whittaker's Guns called me when they came in from CZ-USA, and mine was an '01. This put them in the rather awkward position of selling these pistols at two different prices for a while, because their policy is to mark their guns up at a certain % over their actual cost.
BATF importation regulations are incredibly Byzantine, so some of this may have been a function of how the guns were imported, rather than issues of manufacturing and marketing, per se. My understanding is that the BATF looks at imported pistols with a sort of "points system." CZ-USA moved from California to Kansas precisely because KS doesn't have any additional state laws that restrict importing arms, apart from the otherwise controlling Fed. laws and regulations.
