I know you will enjoy the gun. It is quite expensive to buy a new one these days, and as you have found out, it is a very high quality firearm.
Back to the dating code, on mine, the "L1" date code, located under the forward end of the left ejector slide, is very shallowly impressed. On one of my model 56s, it is almost polished out. It appears that the date stamp is placed early in the barrel manufacture. You may want to check under both the upper forearm wooden parts, right side as well as the left (you will have to remove the screws to do this) and maybe even remove the ejectors so that you can see the entire barrel surface under the ejector slide arms. I can't believe that AyA would put out a gun without a date stamp.
Anyway, enjoy your AyA. I certainly enjoy mine. Jim Haynes
