The shortages of the revolutionary 500 f5.6E PF is another example, as these delays caused much angst (!) Over the past year, registrations of new purchases on Photosynthesis made it possible to get at least an approximation of production rates from the factory. As Owlseyes just noted for the 200-400 f4G. This practise is well advised to check up on those Nikkors notorious for copy variation, or a glitch in earlier releases.

This is most valuable resource, especially when you need to know the relative age of a Product on the Used market. I'm glad you shared it on the board, as it is a super useful resource when shopping for used lenses, trying to determine the weight of your gear before flying internationally (if we ever get to do that again ), or when looking to see if a specific camera bag will be long enough for your lenses. Roland Vink (I think that's his last name) has been working on this for years and continues to update serial numbers of lenses into the present. This is a well know database (in fact, I just referenced it in another thread). Not sure if this is known to folks already, but I found this website that as some very good info on pretty much all Nikon lenses AFAICT.

Nikon serial number database