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It’s a 3
That’s great. I could see it was a 3 but I couldn’t explain how I knew until I scrolled.
The pattern that the 7 above was also clipped revealing the edge of the 3 also was missed made it click.
Neat!
I wouldn’t have caught the 6 over there was clipped though. That’s some analysis right there. Thorough.
I’d say 3, except that the 3 on the line above has a flat bottom line.
If it’s also missing some dots from the middle, it could be part of the second and third columns of a 2.
I still vote for 3.
The 7 above is also missing some dots on the right, so there’s an entire vertical strip of erased ink. The numbers are up to 5 dots wide, but the existing 3 only has 4 dots on the bottom. It’s possible that a fifth is supposed to be there one spot higher, matching the missing number, but it just got clipped by the erased part.
I’m convinced. I’m team 3.
Actually now I am too. The digits all seem to be normally 5 dots wide.
Except zero for some reason.
To differentiate it from O - making 0 narrow is a common way to do that
That’s a possibility.
My other argument, though, is that in 2026 February 28 is the end of a month, while March 28 is a random Saturday.
BBD (best by date) is going to be 1 year, or some other legally specified number of days, from the date of manufacturing/canning. It can fall on the end of a month, but not intentionally. 28-Mar-2025 was a Friday.
Ah yes, I’d say 2 is the most likely candidate
Edit: I’m on team 3 now thanks to radix’s comment
Another argument in favor of 2 is that February 2026 has 28 days, so 2 is the only digit that would make the date the end of a month.
The BBD year is 2026 and you’ve already opened the can. Man, if we were roommates and you’d called me downstairs for this…
…I’d hope you’d be just as curious as me as to the mystery digit!
Pass the joint and
lemmelemmy have a look at it.
Best before date is not a used by date. You can eat something well after a best before date, it just might not be exactly the same as something “fresh”, but still edible. Used by is when there’s a chance for harm.
My vote is “3” even though it doesn’t match the 3 above it.
My vote is to taste and smell the fucking thing. This is what every chef in every kitchen you eat at has always done. That will tell you if it’s edible. BBD is a suggestion, so a few months out of date means wildly different things if it’s been kept at an average of 20c or 30c.
I’ve tasted shit that was 5 years past BBD. Didn’t taste good, but didn’t cause any harm. Trust your taste and smell to tell you what’s bad. Evolution spent millions of years tuning your senses.
Looks are also important. Botulism doesn’t have a taste or smell, but the can will often be swollen or at least pressurised, so never eat a swollen can.
I agree with both of you
I would guess a number between 0 and 9
I can narrow that down to 1 and 9, because it’s definitely not the month of nontober
Lousy Smarch weather
5 or 9, neither of which show up otherwise, so we can’t be quite sure which one matches.
1, 4, and 7 can be thrown right out as the dots just wouldn’t line up that way. 0, 2, 3, 6, and 8 have other examples in the image that don’t match the dot pattern.
2 could match if the digit in question is missing dots within the visible columns, and 3 could match if the existing example is missing a leftmost column.
2 doesn’t match because the top leftmost dot shouldn’t be there. If it’s shifted by a column, then the bottom leftmost dot shouldn’t be there, and the spacing isn’t quite right, either.
3 doesn’t match because the other example of a 3 doesn’t have a dot in the bottom leftmost dot that’s printed.
Or the whole thing is a misprint, in which case I don’t think we can even figure it out.
9 wouldn’t have a flat top
A lowercase 8
I’d say 3
and the 3 that is there is missing a three pixel vertical slice on its left side
that is a 3.
the 3 above has been cut off as well.
no other numbers are flat on top and open on the back.
Lol it doesn’t match the 3 above it at all.
That is becaus the 3 you are seeing also misses a column of dots on the left side.
All numbers are made up of 5 colums of dots, but the 3 you recognize has only 4 colums visable.
Ok I can kinda see that.
That’s a fucking J lmao
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I’d say two. Look at the two to right of it the pixels match
But another 2 Pixels would be missing. The 7 above seems to show that the first two rows of those digits were printed completely.
Yes but the there is printed like a normal three. The font on a computer screen showing 3 has the left edge of the three arced down. In a can I’ve never seen it arced down.
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2 or 5. If I had to guess, it would be 2
1: no 2: Possibly 3: no 4: no - no examples, but I don’t think any format would have the 2 dots at the bottom left corner 5: Possibly - no examples though 6: no 7: No 8: no 9: No - no examples, but same reason as 4
The 2 doesn’t have a flat top. I say 5.
If it were a 2, I think the left side of the 2 may have been cut off
Very crude markup:
- Green: The dots I think were included
- Red: The dots I’m assuming you’re referring to (in which case I would agree with you)
- Blue: Showing the (extremely rough) alignment. Based on the 7, there’s a max of 5 dots across for a given character. Indicating there is a potential row on the left that may either be the actual left side of the character (in which case it would be red and you would be right), or it’s also a misprint (which then it ccoouulldd be green)
