Ace titles have had two main types of serial numbers: letter series, such as "D-31" and "H-77", and numeric, such as "10293" and "15697". The letters were used to indicate a price. The following is a list of series with their date ranges and prices.
* D-series—35¢, 1952 to 1965.
* S-series—25¢, 1954 to 1958.
* T-series—40¢. This series is listed in Tuck's Encyclopedia,[41] but he gives no examples in his index and there are none cited in other bibliographic sources. This series may therefore not exist.
* F-series—40¢, 1960 to 1967.
* M-series—45¢, 1964 to 1966.
* G-series—50¢, 1958 to 1960 (D/S/G series); 1964 to 1968 (later series).
* K-series—50¢, 1959 to 1968.
* H-series—60¢, 1965 or 1966 to 1968.
* A-series—75¢, 1965 to 1968.
* N-series—95¢, 1965 to 1968.
The first series of Ace books began in 1952 with D-01, a western in tête-bêche format: Keith Vining's Too Hot for Hell backed with Samuel W. Taylor's The Grinning Gismo. That series continued until D-599, Patricia Libby's Winged Victory for Nurse Kerry, but the series also included several G and S serial numbers, depending on the price. The D and S did not indicate "Double" (i.e., tête-bêche) or "Single"; there are D-series titles that are not tête-bêche, although none of the tête-bêche titles have an S serial number.
Towards the end of this initial series, the F series began (at a new price), and thereafter there were always several different letter series in publication simultaneously. The D and S prefixes did not appear again after the first series, but the G prefix acquired its own series starting with G-501. Hence the eight earlier G-series titles can be considered part of a different series to the G-series proper. All series after the first kept independent numbering systems, starting at 1 or 101.
In January 1969, Ace switched to a numeric coding system. The code depended on the title of the book: specifically, on the first significant word in the title. For example, Tom Purdom's The Barons of Behavior was published by Ace in about 1972 as serial number 04760. The first letter of "Barons" is "B", so the code assigned is fairly early in the numeric range 00000 to 99999. This procedure for assigning numeric codes was in use at Ace at least into the early 1990s, and may still be in use today. For Ace Doubles, one of the titles was selected and used to determine what serial number would be used. For example, 11560 is the Ace Double The Communipaths by Suzette Haden Elgin, backed with Louis Trimble's The Noblest Experiment in the Galaxy. The serial number here is derived from The Communipaths; a serial number derived from the Trimble would have been about 58000.
For the later numeric series titles, the number is also part of the ISBN. To form the ISBN (if it exists) for one of these books, one prefixes to the serial number "0" (representing the English language/US), and "441" (Ace's publisher number). The last digit can then be calculated with an ISBN check digit calculator. For example, Christopher Stasheff's Escape Velocity has serial number 21599; the ISBN is 0-441-21599-8
* D-series—35¢, 1952 to 1965.
* S-series—25¢, 1954 to 1958.
* T-series—40¢. This series is listed in Tuck's Encyclopedia,[41] but he gives no examples in his index and there are none cited in other bibliographic sources. This series may therefore not exist.
* F-series—40¢, 1960 to 1967.
* M-series—45¢, 1964 to 1966.
* G-series—50¢, 1958 to 1960 (D/S/G series); 1964 to 1968 (later series).
* K-series—50¢, 1959 to 1968.
* H-series—60¢, 1965 or 1966 to 1968.
* A-series—75¢, 1965 to 1968.
* N-series—95¢, 1965 to 1968.
The first series of Ace books began in 1952 with D-01, a western in tête-bêche format: Keith Vining's Too Hot for Hell backed with Samuel W. Taylor's The Grinning Gismo. That series continued until D-599, Patricia Libby's Winged Victory for Nurse Kerry, but the series also included several G and S serial numbers, depending on the price. The D and S did not indicate "Double" (i.e., tête-bêche) or "Single"; there are D-series titles that are not tête-bêche, although none of the tête-bêche titles have an S serial number.
Towards the end of this initial series, the F series began (at a new price), and thereafter there were always several different letter series in publication simultaneously. The D and S prefixes did not appear again after the first series, but the G prefix acquired its own series starting with G-501. Hence the eight earlier G-series titles can be considered part of a different series to the G-series proper. All series after the first kept independent numbering systems, starting at 1 or 101.
In January 1969, Ace switched to a numeric coding system. The code depended on the title of the book: specifically, on the first significant word in the title. For example, Tom Purdom's The Barons of Behavior was published by Ace in about 1972 as serial number 04760. The first letter of "Barons" is "B", so the code assigned is fairly early in the numeric range 00000 to 99999. This procedure for assigning numeric codes was in use at Ace at least into the early 1990s, and may still be in use today. For Ace Doubles, one of the titles was selected and used to determine what serial number would be used. For example, 11560 is the Ace Double The Communipaths by Suzette Haden Elgin, backed with Louis Trimble's The Noblest Experiment in the Galaxy. The serial number here is derived from The Communipaths; a serial number derived from the Trimble would have been about 58000.
For the later numeric series titles, the number is also part of the ISBN. To form the ISBN (if it exists) for one of these books, one prefixes to the serial number "0" (representing the English language/US), and "441" (Ace's publisher number). The last digit can then be calculated with an ISBN check digit calculator. For example, Christopher Stasheff's Escape Velocity has serial number 21599; the ISBN is 0-441-21599-8
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