I should have cut my comment on the tuocha and just left in your
comment on the XG BINGCHA zhong/crane 2004 demarcation year (I just did
that). I have the one with the Zhongcha from Chinatown. From one of
the Chinese sites my captured graphic indicates XG Iron Cake from 2003.
I'm sure the blemishes match mine. There is a Zhongcha sticker with
YunnanSheng XiaGuan ChaChang Chupin in Chinese printed across the
bottom. The Crane Emblem I think is this year from one of the Chinese
auction sites. I showed mine with the Zhongcha and what I should
expect one of these days in Chinatown with the Crane. If the cooked
2003 XG Iron Cake was a limited run I'll make another trip to Chinatown
to stock up.

Jim

samarkand wrote:
> Hi Jim,
>
> I think there's still a little confusion here.
>
> What you are talking about is BINGCHA - the emblem changed from Zhongcha Pai
> to Crane IN 2004.
>
> What was discussed once is about TUOCHA - the emblem changed from Zhongcha
> Pai to Crane IN 1992.
>
> Did you mention Cooked Iron Cake? Xiaguan didn't produce many series of
> cooked iron cakes, the picture you had looks very much like the 8603 cooked
> iron cake produced in 2003.
>
> The Crane emblem cake you showed is more confusing. In all appearance it
> looks like the 8673 cake produced this year. However, from what I know, all
> cakes produced with the line of code on the left in small red print, and the
> green words "Yunnan Sheng Zhu Ming Shang Biao" (A famous brand from Yunnan)
> over the crane emblem, the big red characters framing the top and bottom of
> the cake should be in SIMPLE characters.
>
> Wrappers without the code on the left and the green words under the crane
> emblem would have the big red framing characters in FANG TI, or complex
> characters.
>
> Do you have the inside of the two cakes with the stickers to show?
>
> Danny
>
>
> "Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > This is a Xiaguan wrapper prior 2004 with the Zhong Emblem which I can
> > find in Chinatown. You can only know it is Xiaguan because the
> > blemishes have been identified elsewhere as such. See a previous
> > thread about Xiaguan Iron Cake. This is the cooked I almost like.
> >
> > http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...before2004.jpg
> >
> > This is the Xiaguan wrapper after 2004 with the Crane emblem. My
> > Chinatown is still selling their old wrapper.
> >
> > http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...nafter2004.jpg
> >
> > Jim
> >
> > samarkand wrote:
> >> "Space Cowboy" > wrote in message
> >> ups.com...
....snipped...
> >> the Crane Emblem was used on BINGCHA only from Dec 2003 -
> >> some
> >> said early 2004. Hope this clears up the issue for you.
> >>
> >> Danny