Vintage Ceramic Capicator Markings

Ceramic capacitors are generally smaller than types like electrolytic capacitors and therefore the markings need to be more concise.

Vintage ceramic capicator markings.

Like all vintage equipment they will need routine service including capacitor replacement before they are reliable and accurate. Sometimes figures such as 10n will be seen and this indicates a 10nf capacitor. The great capacitor debate. The value of the capacitor is indicated in picofarads.

Markings of ceramic capacitor. A variety of schemes may be used. There is an ongoing debate in the vintage radio press as to whether one should just replace the faulty capacitors or the whole lot. Two of the most common are shown here.

The first is used with small ceramic capacitors and appears as a single letter. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. Capacitor tolerance markings in addition to the capacitance value and possibly the working voltage or breakdown voltage the capacitor may be marked by its tolerance. This letter represents the tolerance of the capacitor meaning how close the actual value of the capacitor can be expected to be to the indicated value of the capacitor.

There are several tolerance marking systems used. I replace any that are faulty and any that look suspect. A collection of pottery marks using photos and images from our antique collection for easy reference and as a quick guide to the possible attribution of your latest porcelain collectible or pottery marks. The markings on a ceramic capacitor are more concise in nature since it is smaller in size as compared to electrolytic capacitors.

Ceramic disc capacitor code label will normally consist of three numbers followed by a letter. They are very easy to decode to find the value. I tend to take a middle line on this subject. Thus for such concise markings many different types of schemes or solutions are adopted.

The marks listed below are grouped as far as was possible in a logical order with similar signs graphics shapes etc grouped together. Ceramic capacitors which are usually tiny pancakes with two pins typically list the tolerance value as one letter immediately after the three digit capacitance value. The third digit is the multiplier which is 1000. Often the value may be given in picofarads.

The first two significant digits represent the first two digits of the actual value which is 47.