What year is my Mercury outboard? Year code lookup

Reviewed 2026-10-152 primary sourcesSee sources

Mercury doesn’t publish a chart that turns a serial number into a year. It prints the year on the serial label instead: current labels have a boxed two-digit year, and some labels use a two-letter code in which each letter stands for a digit.

Covers: Mercury outboards whose serial label shows a two-digit year box, and models whose label carries Mercury’s two-letter year code (shown in the 15/20 EFI FourStroke manual).

Where to find the numbers

• The serial number label is on the transom bracket.^[1]
• On the 15 and 20 hp EFI FourStroke the serial decal carries the model number, serial number, power and weight, with the year code at the lower right; the emission label also has a year-of-manufacture field.^[2]

Formats Mercury publishes

The decoder checks your number against each of these. A number can fit more than one era; the decoder then shows every possible reading.

Two-digit year boxcurrent serial labels

The boxed number at the lower right of the label is the last two digits of the year the outboard was made (10 means 2010).^[1]

Two-letter year codelabels with the alpha year code

Each letter is a digit: A 1, B 2, C 3, D 4, E 5, F 6, G 7, H 8, K 9 and X 0. Mercury’s examples read the result as 20YY.^[2]

What Mercury says

Model-code year letter

Mercury used to make the second-to-last character of the model code the model year (its example: D in 1-225V23DD means 2005). That character now marks a production era and no longer changes every year, and Mercury publishes no full table for it.^[1]

Program Year

Mercury has dropped outboard model years. For titling it uses a Program Year based on the invoice date, running July to June: an engine invoiced between July 2008 and June 2009 is a 2009 Program Year engine.^[1]

Worked examples

• BX: B is 2 and X is 0: made in 2020 (Mercury’s example).^[2]
• AG: A is 1 and G is 7: made in 2017 (Mercury’s example).^[2]
• 10: A boxed 10 means made in 2010 (Mercury’s example).^[1]

What these numbers can’t tell you

• Mercury publishes no serial-number ranges by year; charts that claim to are from third parties.^[1]
• Outboards in dealer stock may have been built 12 to 18 months before they were sold.^[1]
• Mercury doesn’t say which models use the letter code; the table comes from the 15/20 EFI FourStroke manual.^[2]
• A serial-to-year chart for Mercury serial numbers such as 2B123456: Mercury doesn’t publish one.

Ask Mercury

• Mercury outboard model year FAQs: Mercury’s own answers on build dates and Program Year; its parts catalog also finds parts by serial number.^[1]