NASSAU

A budget-priced line manufactured for R. H. Macy & Company’s New York department store. They were announced in early December 1907 as single-sided discs retailing for 39¢, leading The Talking Machine World to correctly predict “a legal scrap on patent grounds...invited by this bold step into the boasted territory of prohibited prices.”

Macy’s sometimes gave the records away with the purchase of a phonograph.

The records were numbered in several series, which changed frequently. The earliest series used unprefixed numbers corresponding to Imperial’s catalog numbers, minus 20000 (e.g., Imperial 45681 = Nassau 25681). The first B-prefixed catalog series, introduced in later 1907, used catalog corresponding to Imperial’s, minus 40000 (e.g., Imperial 45222 = Nassau B-5222).
A second B- prefixed series, using one- and two-digit numbers that do not correspond to Imperial’s numbers, was introduced in January 1908.
A C-prefixed series, also using one- and two-digit catalog numbers that do not correspond to Imperial’s, was first advertised in the Fall of 1908. The C- series was soon replaced by a double-sided D- prefixed series.

Several other department stores, including Abraham & Straus, sold Nassau records from time to time, and they were also exported to England. In June 1909, Victor obtained an injunction preventing Macy’s from selling the records.

Source: Discography of American Historical Recordings

NASSAU Series