Abstract: A method for providing hydrophilic contact lenses with identifying means incorporated into lens blanks and the resulting lenses in which an elongated identifying strand, fiber, or rod is molded into a cylindrical lens blank rod positioned substantially parallel to the axis of the rod. Lens blanks or buttons are cut transversely to the axis and the lens blanks ground to the proper optical curvatures. The contact lens blanks each contain portions of the identifying means. The finished contact lenses each contain short segments of the identifying means thereby allowing classification of the contact lenses as to right or left eye, magnification power or other characteristic.