Without a photo, and looking at the serial number of your machine, it appears to be a Smith-Corona. It would surprise me if your Citation was from 1969 or later as Sears was sub-contracting to Royal at that time. The Citation 88, for example, was introduced in 1962, and I've always thought of it as being an early '60s model. I own a Sears Celebrity, which should be very similar to your Citation except for feature differences, and it's from the early '60s. A photo of your machine would go far in helping to narrow down the year it was manufactured in. Oh, and given it should be a very solid portable, if it's in good condition I'd say it was worth $45.

Olivetiger wrote:

https://www.typewriters101.com/uploads/1/7/6/6/17660651/9696401_orig.jpg

If I did this right the above a picture of the Citation is exactly as the one listed at typewriters 101.  In the listing it is noted that they were made by Smith Corona for Sears and is a workhorse typewriter.  For this one they are asking $150 and I've seen $170.  The listing says this typewriter is around 1968.  So I'm thinking $45 wasn't bad and the one I have is in great condition and so far it has been typing smoothly and everything seems to work.  Whoever had it must have taken good care of it. I'm glad that it may be a Smith Corona or Royal and it seems sturdy and durable.   

The typewriter in that picture is a Smith-Corona if ever there was one. That's also a S-C-style serial number. The S-C section at <http://typewriterdatabase.com/smithcorona.86.typewriter-serial-number-database is pretty incomplete for later models, but do what you can with it. The first character, S, is probably signifying Sears so try omitting it in your look-up.

Last edited by Uwe (25-10-2015 16:12:50)

Olivetiger wrote:

Hi M. Hohne, I did find a Sears Citation Serial S6V-130586 dated 1969.  My Serial number is S6V-155711 so I'm thinking this may be a machine from 1969 there wasn't anymore listing beyond the S6V-130586.  I'm so glad it is a Smith Corona machine.  Thanks for your help.

Seems like you found the info. Good.

Olivetiger wrote:

I can't seem to find a ribbon that will fit this machine.  There seems to be some kind of cartridge in this machine.  The spools are inside of what I think is a Easi-Load Cartridge ribbon that was sold by Sears.  The spools are 2 inch, while searching for a ribbon online all I can find is 1-15/16 spool diameters with 1/2 inch ribbon.  Yet the listing states will fit a Sears Citation series 871.  Any suggestions...

This typewriter should take ordinary ribbon spools. If it has a thing that looks like a cartridge, it is probably one of those keep-your-fingers-clean devices that has regular spooled ribbon inside a cartridge thing. You should be able to just replace the whole "cartridge" with a pair of regular spools, threaded properly, of course. If you have any historical sensibilities, you night keep the old ribbon system as an historical artifact. Can you show us a pic of it?

1-15/16" is practically 2". I mean that literally; in practical use they are the same; I just measured one here that is 2-1/16". They all fit and work the same (provided there isn't some other difference, like a special reverse-tripping mechanism or an unusual-size mounting spindle). The 2" spec is what we call a "nominal" spec; i.e., it's what we call anything that's within a reasonable range. So-called "universal" ribbons usually work fine in Smith-Coronas.

Many very small typewriters use a spool of 1-5/8" and these spools should also work in your typewriter, though they will look funny and wear out sooner, like in 15 months instead of 19 months. 

HTH

I'm not sure if the URL will show the picture of the Sears Citation Ribbon Cartridges.  In the typewriter's manual it says to slip in a new Easi-Load Cartridge Ribbon and the Catalog Reorder number is 3740 for Sears.  In the manual there is an option to Change-A-Type.  It says... With Change-A-Type you can add special symbols and characters to your typewriter in seconds.  Just take the Change-A-Type slug off and slip another one on to adapt your typewriter to specials needs.  You can order five Change-A-type kits, each kit contains four types (eight characters).  

Also on this typewriter the Platen is removable.

EDIT: I've fixed this post so that your photo shows, but please read the instructions for posting photos that can be found in the FAQ thread of the Type Talk sub-forum. Uwe

Last edited by Uwe (27-10-2015 10:46:12)