Roman numerals on Tilley crown labels

Checking my photo collection, I don’t think I have seen a Roman numeral lower than MMIII.

Post up a pic if you find a label with MMI or MMII.

Focusing specifically on nylon Airflo hats to avoid any variations in labels according to style, my informal survey (this far) reveals as follows:

The following Roman numerals have been observed on nylon airflo hats:

MMIII - one piece label, no French translation, refers to “Tilleys durable ‘nylamtium’” and includes a stitched Tilley signature.
MMV - same as above
MMVI - same as above

MMVII  -  two piece label, French translation, refers to material as “Nylon with a strong mesh” and no stitched Tilley signature.
MMVIII -  same as above.
MMIX.  -  same as above.

i did not observe any airflo labels that had any Roman numerals lower than “MMIII”, no “MMIV” and no Roman numerals higher than MMIX.  While “MMX” labels have been observed in other types of Tilley hats (TW2, for example), none have been spotted in nylon Airflo models to date.  Additionally, several nylon airflo hats have been observed with “date tags” which appear to refer to mfg dates between 2011-2017, thus it would appear that Roman numerals were discontinued @ 2011.

Since a few of these (nylon airflo) hats have been observed with owners manuals dated within a year of the Roman numeral (2004 dated manual included with a MMIII crown label, for example.)  (MMX TW2s had manuals dated 2009), it’s a fair conclusion that these Roman numerals do have some correlation to mfg date.

Further, since the MMIII, MMV and MMVI are identical to one another except for the Roman numerals (same wirh labels marked MMVII, MMVIII, and MMIX); that fact would seem to rule out that the Roman numerals have anything to do with denoting different versions of the label itself.  

Take away:  The Roman numerals will serve to narrow down the manufacturing date of a Tilley hat to within a few years between 2003-2010