Marking system and method for medical devices

A method of marking a specimen of a guide wire having limited surface area to express information about the specimen, comprising:

• selecting a plurality of information categories representative of data pertinent to the guide wire;
• providing a distinct marking element on the surface of the specimen at a proximal end only corresponding to each information category;
• determining a code property for each marking element which is expressible in a plurality of distinct code property values;
• determining, for each category, a plurality of data elements, each data element having a data value pertinent to the respective category;
• assigning, for each category, a distinct code property value to each data element in the category;
• selecting, for each category, one of the plurality of data elements of the respective category, which represents information regarding the specimen;
• and
• for each marking element, expressing on the respective marking element the code property value assigned to the selected data element of the corresponding category.