My gf is an archivist and she has come across a collection of letters that has a three digit year. Example here It's not a typo since it occurs quite a lot both handwritten and in type. The collection is from 1867-1900 so is 189 just 1889 or 1899? If so, does anyone know why it is this way?
Thanks!
I'm not sure about these documents in particular.
I have encountered more modern documents (from the 1980's) that seemed to use a similar convention however.
In essence the last numeral is left unprinted so it can filled in by the person filling in the document. So a single print run of documents could conceivably be used for the entire decade merely by altering the last numeral appropriately.
I won't say that's what's going on here, but it's a possibility. The fact that it is NOT filled out may make that hypothesis wrong.