New vs. Old Americans In Canada

[FancyPants]

So everywhere I see anything relating to American locks on the internet, two facts about the changes really strike me as odd:
1. There are plates behind the core to prevent the bypassing method
2. Serrated pins are rare as all hell, apparently, and some claims that security pins are being skimped on?

While this is all fine and dandy, I've been working at a company who uses the 1100As in the thousands. I even have a box sitting in the office that I play around with in my downtime. I've gutted dozens upon dozens now, and I have found neither of those statements to be true. For the last ~4 years at least, we've been getting them bulk from a supplier, so I figured it was just old supply. Seems bizarre, considering the changes have been implemented for quite some time now to my understanding. In the last year or two, we've been getting ones engraved with employee's names from what I presume would be straight from American lock's home in Canada, wherever that may be, and it would have to be quite a 'new' batch. No real excuse for that one...

I've never seen a standard driven pin in these before, nor have I seen a single anti bypass plate. So I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the Canadian manufacturing line has never changed, which seems bizarre to me as the company as a whole recognized the bypassing method as a legitimate threat. That being said, I've only got experience from this small little part of Alberta. Is anybody else from Canada able to shed a bit of light on this? Am I missing something?

[cledry]

Never knew they had a factory in Canada. The ones we get are from Mexico.

[GWiens2001]

Never knew they had a factory in Canada. The ones we get are from Mexico.

American Locks - made in Mexico. From Chinese parts?

Gordon

[cheerIO]

What are the date codes of your locks?

I have some older ones that lack the bypass plates. But I have not seen a decrease in security pins on the civilian versions. I think most of the pin examples are coming from government contract locks.

[jeffmoss26]

Never knew they had a factory in Canada. The ones we get are from Mexico.

American Locks - made in Mexico. From Chinese parts?

Gordon

Pretty much!

[billdeserthills]

The new ones I get have the anti-bypass plate installed, but I bought a bunch more of the plates, to add to the padlocks I rekey in the shop
Actually when I first heard that Master Padlock had aquired American I figured that would be the end of the serrated driver & spool driver pins

[FancyPants]

Never knew they had a factory in Canada. The ones we get are from Mexico.

I would have actually been pretty surprised if the factory was in Canada, but for it to be in Mexico is probably even more surprising. But then that would make it a bit bizarre for us to have anything but the same as the US versions.

What are the date codes of your locks?

I have some older ones that lack the bypass plates. But I have not seen a decrease in security pins on the civilian versions. I think most of the pin examples are coming from government contract locks.

I have 3 sitting in front of me right now: one older and two significantly newer (or so when I got them anyways)
Old: VNM13 - Suggesting a manufacturing date of May 2012. The wafer fix was implemented before the turn of the decade even, no? I've only been around locksport for a few years, so I'm not too informed on certain dates.
Here's where it gets funky to me
Newer: 0414AW and 0344AG. I haven't the slightest clue of why these are the numbers on them. None of the numbers match up to the traditional numbering system.

In reply to your comment about the pins... that totally seems bass-ackwards to me and gives pretty deep insight into the way they do business.