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Grades, in ascending order, are as follows:
- CC - CB - CA - BC - BB - BA -- Generally Sandblasts
- AC - AB – AA – Generally Smooth
- C - B - A – High grade smooth
- A0 - A1 - A2 - A3 – A4 – A5 – A6 (and up, with the number increasing indefinitely) – very rare ultra high grades
The grade is determined based upon a number of factors, including difficulty and/or rarity of shape,
time taken to create the pipe and grain. Therefore, an exceptional sandblast with an extraordinary shape
would be graded more highly than a less exceptional smooth.
There is no set price point for each grade and all Barbi pipes are priced by the piece. Barbi pipes
generally start at $250 and reach into the many thousands for his very finest pipes.
Date Codes:
Month:
Z, Y, X, W, V, U, T, S, R, P, N, M
In ascending order with January being ‘Z’ and December being ‘M’.
Year:
- 1997 - A
- 1998 - B
- 1999 - C
- 2000 - D
- 2001 - E
- 2002 - F
- 2003 - G
Generally, the month code precedes the year code. However, Barbi sometimes reverses the stamping.
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