AG Raised Neck Stamp - More Research (and Questions)

In a previous post were pictures of a used Josefina doll that I bought with the raised neck stamp. I had seen the raised neck stamp on a Nellie doll being sold on eBay by a consignment shop months earlier. I had researched it and couldn’t find a lot of information, and thought maybe someone on LADL had information on the raised neck stamp. Since that posting, I did a little more researching and bought the Nellie I had seen on eBay. 

This is the neck stamp and body tag on my Josefina. 

1. Ticia mentioned being told that the Josefina mold had been broken. Nellie has the Josefina face mold, so I found that was interesting that both dolls would have the raised neck stamp and be from the same mold. 

2. Here is the Nellie I bought from a consignment shop on eBay. Josefina and Nellie have the same neck stamp ‘American Girl LLC’, the same body tag, and the neck opening doesn’t have the added wedge or ‘V’ shaped material to make the neck opening wider. 

3. When I did a search for the raised neck stamp, I found a blog post about how to tell if the doll is an authentic American Girl doll. In the comment section, a person asked about GOTY Kailey Hopkins raised neck stamp. The blogger replied saying that she bought Nellie from AG, whose neck stamp is raised. I went on eBay to look at GOTY Kailey dolls, and found two with raised neck stamps. The differences between Kailey, Nellie and Josefina: 

Kailey has the classic face mold and her raised neck stamp says, ‘Pleasant Company’. Kailey was released in 2003.  

Nellie was released in 2004. 

Josefina was released 1997. 

(More on release dates.)

One similarity is that her neck opening also doesn’t have the wedge or ‘V’ shaped piece of fabric to make it wider. 

This is the link for the Kailey doll with the necklace: 

This is the link for the second Kailey doll.

4. Then a raised neck stamp Josefina appeared on Goodwill. Her neck stamp also says ‘American Girl LLC’.  What year was this box used? I don’t see it on the LADL post ‘American Girl Doll Boxes - History’ and I don’t see any other website with a history of the boxes like LADL has. I have two boxes that have the same design, and on the tag, it says ‘Made in USA, Germany, China’ I'm curious if the heads and limbs were just starting to be produced in China and someone messed up the mold resulting in a raised neck stamp instead of an indented one? 

5. I remember seeing something about a tag being inside the torso by the shoulder that indicated month and year that it was made. So I took apart my Josefina, but I didn’t find a tag. But the bottom of her head mold didn’t seem to be like other molds on dolls that I have. The bottom of the head on other dolls seems to be flat, but my Josefina’s is a bit slanted, or curved, not sure how to describe it. Here are pictures: 

6. Here is a Bitty Twin that was sold on Etsy with a tag that has ‘3371’ on it instead of a year.  Looks like the neck stamp says ‘2002 Pleasant Company’, which is indented.  

I have found this topic interesting, since I don’t see this very often. Some sellers don’t take a picture of body tags or neck stamps, unless it is to show that an older historical, GOTY, or JLY doll is Pleasant Company, which reduces the opportunity of seeing different neck stamps and body tags. I can see how showing a different body tag or neck stamp, when you are selling the doll, would raise the question of the authenticity of the doll.