1953 m38a1 cdn

[BCA]

From my understanding the CFR number system (Canadian Forces Registration number) has the prefix year when the number was assigned. In this case: 53 for 1953. Then a dash mark. In the case of the 1/4-ton jeep the next digit is 3 which signifies the weight class of the vehicle, in this case a 1/4-ton truck. This leaves only 4 more digits.
I believe these four digits started at 0001 for the first 1952 M38 (i.e 52-30001) and progressed to about 52-3220 or so. I believe when the 1953 M38A1 jeeps were received that the last 4 digits of the CFR number were continuous with the last issued M38 CFR.
It is interesting to note that the ordnance code for the M38 and the M38A1 were the same: 2230 wo /wn and 2231 w/wn so this implies that the army didn't really differentiate between the M38 and M38A1.
There is photographic evidence of M38's with CFR's like 53-33xxx but I don't know why this high series existed. As Frank suggests it may be related to specialized equipment that was added and therefore the CFR was changed. However I would want to see documentation on this possibility.
Of particular interest of the UK M38A1 would be to know the Ford serial number and the date of delivery (MM-DD-YY) on the dashboard brass serial plate.