About 1988. It was just pulled without a final unmolded case. The one I pulled was light purple and was troublesome to finish out. The ribs chip easily when they clunk around on other beads. In those days I ground all the beads off of a cane in one cycle so I kept the beads separated in egg cartons so they wouldn't chip each other while I was doing all the processing. Only about 20 beads off of that particular cane.