Uwe - I'm guessing he means the silent return mechanism that stops the escapement making a grating noise as the carriage is returned. (Pulls the loose dog out of engagement with the escapement wheel).

Z-Typer - I am pretty sure that the silent return spring must be detached or missing on your 1967 model.  It wouldn't have left the factory making that noise.

To really get at the spring, you would have to take the carriage off its' rails (not advised !) You are not looking for a conventional coil spring, but an 80% circle of fine spring wire which sits in a groove on the escapement wheel and semi-rotates with it.  You will need a very powerful torch to see it.

Yes, the machine is a Monica.  The Monica was always a de-featured version of the SM8/SM9.  Pretty well the same internal mechanism, but no tabulator.  This was Olympia's final version of the SM series.  Production of the SM8/9 had probably finished by the time this was made.  It has as many plastic parts as possible to keep the price down, no tabulator and no touch control.  No freehead either. Interestingly, they did also make a deluxe version with a basic tab. (six sliding stops inherited from the SM8), plus touch control and freehead.  The model probably dates from the late 1970's/early 1980's.  Turn the machine upside down, and you should find a serial number stamped underneath.  Yes, the machine really was made in the UK.  The factory was in Northern Ireland, but I do not know the precise location.  (Wages were cheaper in Ireland than in Germany)  They had been making Olympia mechanical adding machines.  When that line finished with the increasing popularity of printing desk calculators, the factory then took on the Monica.  I suspect that it was merely assembled from parts sent from Germany, but I do not know for certain.  This was the last true Olympia mid-sized machine before they went over to selling disguised Nakajimas.  Despite all the plastic, it is still a very nice typewriter and twice the quality of its' successor !

thetypewriterman wrote:

Forget what I said about the serial number - of course the machine is in a fully-enclosed plastic case so they must have moved it somewhere else on the machine where it was visible. Cannot quite remember where, but it does have one !

Haha, you're quick to recognize the "mistake". I've looked all over the machine. The only other thing despite the sticker stating where it was made was "2.01.1" next to a "i" logo and a "05" in ar circle. This can't be the serial number, right? It was "in the hood" if this comparison to a car makes any sense. The plastic part of the machine which you can take off, too look under the hood.

Resurrecting this thread -- I came across a Craigslist post for a wide carriage SM9. That machine has the green shift keys and platen knob ends of the early versions, but the script Olympia logo on the front of the ribbon cover is in green also. I am thinking this is an earlier variant than those with the translucent silver script logo, perhaps the first SM9 variant?

Also, and this may not be a valid identifier of a variant, the three SM9s pictured on the first page of this thread all have a 1 key. The SM9 on Craigslist, and the one I have already, do not have a 1 key. I realize that Olympia made machines with a variety of typesets, but I would guess as a general rule that a machine with a 1 key indicates it's of later production than a machine without it. I am speaking of English keyboards; I cannot speak with confidence about other language keyboards.