Made in Czechoslovakia

How to read it

The State Department’s Office of the Historian records that the Czecho-Slovak National Council declared independence from Austria-Hungary on 18 October 1918, and that on 31 December 1992 the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ceased to exist, succeeded by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. US Customs announced the change in T.D. 93-17 of March 1993, with the English names to use for the two new countries. The old names could still be used on goods imported until 1 January 1994.

Also searched as: czechoslovakia glass, czechoslovakia mark, made in czechoslovakia.

Czech and Czecho

Czechoslovakia is a long word to fit on a small item, and US Customs approved two short forms for it, “Czech” and “Czecho”, in rulings of 1985 and 1986. In 1992 it refused CSFR, the country’s official abbreviation after it was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic: the ruling says the new name had not become widely enough known in the US for buyers to recognise it. Before 1994 a mark reading Czech or Czecho on its own was a Czechoslovakia mark.

After the split

From 1 January 1994 “Czech” stopped being acceptable. A 1993 ruling on drill bits previously marked “Czecho” says the US Board on Geographic Names advised there was no short name for the Czech Republic and would not support “Czech”, so goods had to say “Czech Republic” or “Czech Rep.” A 1998 ruling also refused CZ and CR. West Germany is the other country name US Customs retired in the same years.