http://writingball.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/sf-bay-area-type-in-report.html
Scroll down a bit in this post of a 2013 type-in on Richard Polt's blog. There's a picture of both a coloured keys Corona and an animal keys Corona complete with the rings to wear to match the fingers to the right keys.  It's very pretty!

btw, if one of those coloured keys coronas came up in the UK I'd try my luck but I'm sitting on my hands right now,  lovely as it is ;)
 

Last edited by malole (12-5-2015 14:45:08)

Hi everyone!

Kindly forgive me, this note may be a bit longer than usual for a forum-- but I needed to speak up and help you with this Corona Colored Keys Typewriter you found on ebay. Congrats on locating this obscure listing, as I accidentally discovered this a few days ago myself. 

Allow me to introduce myself:

I'm Gigi, and the typer you are referring to at the 2013 San Francisco Type-In is the Corona Animal Typewriter and Rings that I own. As I'm a teacher with a Masters in Education (Interactive Instructional Design), Teaching typers are an absolute passion of mine! ;o)

Bear with me for a moment, and I'll explain the difference between the Corona Animal and the Corona Colored Keyboards, as this is what the discussion is focused on, okay?

In a nutshell, the Corona Animal Keyboard typer was designed to help children learn how to type. The keyboard has pictures of various animals jumping/moving from key to key; the animals and the (colored) backgrounds are unique to the each section that you should be typing with a certain finger. For example, the sparrow with a blue background, resides on the leftmost part of the keyboard. You'll find a cute quacky yellow duck with a pink background in the center section of this keyboard, to be tapped/typed with your right forefinger and so on. Keep in mind, the letters are printed along the characters to further reinforce touch typing.

More importantly, there's a collection of 9 rings that the child wears to further promote correct placement of the fingers. Each ring has a single animal-- also with matching backgrounds to direct the correct finger to that section of the keyboard. The child would wear the elephant on his/her right thumb to correspond with the 'march of the elephants' found on the space bar. In addition, the Animal keyboard contains math keys to aid the child in "reading, writing and arithmetic," as they say in the olden days! (An ebay auction just ended last night for these extremely rare rings... only 4 sets existed in various conditions, now there are 5 sets known in the world with only 2 sets of them in pristine, complete and unused condition.) For those who are interested, here's the ebay item number #201345851554 Needless to say, the typer and rings were sold for one season only, at the height of the Depression in 1935. Only wealthy parents could afford this machine; it's akin to buying your child an iPad in today's dollars! Very few Corona 'flattops' were sold, and there has been discoveries of an 1940's version, using the Corona Speedline models of typers, and they are also hard to find. The rings are rarer than the typers, as they usually got tossed in a drawer and forgotten, once the child learned how to type.

Sadly, these flattop Animal typers are the keychopper's 'holy grail,' but no one seems to realize that Corona merely 'recovered' their regular keycaps with colorful diecut tops of the animals for a fee. Yep, that is true! ;o) To whit, I have seen two Animal typewriters in poor condition, missing several animal keytops-- showing actual celluloid letters or characters as part of the keyboard.

What's incredible and SO exciting, is the interactive learning design factors of the typer, rings and the two manuals-- one that was written exclusively for children and a twin booklet for the parents to help their kids. This is the core of my research, it so happens. More on this later, okay? (My presentation at the International Typewriters Collectors Conference in Milwaukee last August, highlighted this very topic of interactive learning on 1930's Teaching Typewriters, just so you know. ;o)

Back to the other typer:

The older kids wanted to learn typing too, but not with animals (understandably!)-- so Corona developed the Colored Keys Typewriter with pastel color sections of keys with letters. This is the typer you are referring to, that is now on sale on ebay. I believe the keytops are not recovered with diecuts, but actual pastel-colored celluliod keytops bound with metal rings, with white legends.

Each section of the keyboard has a 'grouping' color, to aid the older child in proper finger placement for touch typing. Not only that, Corona developed a booklet for these kids, with colorful, fun exercises for them to 'get it right.' 

Comments I need to make:

Kindly realize that this Colored Keys typer on ebay is a bit worn and faded... from what I can gather from the images. This typer will need a good cleaning. ;o) As anyone knows, pricing is determined by the number of people interested in this typer and its condition. A quick glance at Collectors Weekly shows there's 13 watchers on this machine, and 3 bids thus far. To see this, go to collectorsweekly.com, and select office/typewriters.

Depending on how many collectors find this listing, may very well push the price into the hundreds, methinks. While the Colored Keys typer is not as rare as the Animal Keyboard, it is still hard to find in the wild... I usually find the Remington 5 Colored Keyboard Teaching typers more often than the Corona model. To the best of my knowledge, the last time I've seen this Colored Keys typer show up, was 3+ years ago. Perhaps that still classifies this one as rare? ;o)

I sincerely hope this 'bit o' information' helps!

I will post pictures of both typers next, and hopefully, the sizing of the images will be okay for this forum.

Have a super day!

Warmly, Gigi

Hi again everyone,

I'm still very new to this forum, and made the inevitable typos in my first post! Kindly please forgive me! ;o)

I did state that the letters are part of the Animal Keyboard typers, but don't mind saying this again. ;o)

Could someone kindly help me post pictures from my computer to show both the Animal Keyboard with Rings, and the Colored Keys Typewriter? The box for pictures keeps asking for links, when it will come directly from my computer... as pictures speak louder than words! Many thanks in advance!

Because I'm a newbie to this forum, I can't post links to ebay, etc. until I've done two posts, at least. So my next message will have the links to ease your quest/search for more information.

Just remember there are specific names to look for when researching teaching typers:

Corona Animal Keyboard Typewriter

Corona Color Keys Typewriter

Remington 5 Teaching Typewriter

Blank Keys Typewriters

Learn Typewriting

Typewriting Books

Hi Spazmelda!  I do own several blank key typers, and yes, that was another way to teach older children and adults how to type. There is even tests you can take with them... I'll show my findings on those in a bit! I also collect Typing Charts that our teachers posted on the wall, showing the placement of the characters. (Well, those memories may be for those in my age bracket, right? ;o)

Can't wait to hear your comments! It's SO nice to be able to share many hours of research, as I believe in sharing the wealth of information.

Take lots of care.

Warmly, Gigi

Hi [url=/profile.php?id=649]Spazmelda[/url],

No worries! 

Love your spelling of "komprenshun!" 

Still awaiting word from anyone that can help me upload the images of the typers and rings.

Have a great day, okay? Thanks for staying in touch with me!

Warmly, Gigi 

ritualsart wrote:

Still awaiting word from anyone that can help me upload the images of the typers and rings.

It's explained in detail in the forum FAQ thread.