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28-12-2020 03:29:18  #1


Rarity Question

https://sites.google.com/view/maxyells-party-emporium 

   I picked up for free an Smith-Corona Coronet Special 10.  It is in pristine condition.  It looks like it was bought and never used.

  I see a lot of SC automatic 12s for sale.  I was told by someone on the Typewriter Database it is pretty rare.

The serial number of mine is 6ESL-108222G 

Does anyone have any info on this model as to the production numbers?

Pictures on the link above.  Thanks

 

28-12-2020 10:34:30  #2


Re: Rarity Question

tldr: Your pictured typewriter looks really clean and nice but any rarity it embodies will not affect its value.

"Rare" doesn't mean much in the typewriter realm. The machines that are truly rare are pretty well-known and the ones that are not already known won't be of much interest simply because they aren't known. And minor variations of mass-produced machines are not of interest (except sometimes to completists) and Smith-Corona is notorious for variations in only the decoration. (I note that your pics are of a Super 10, not a Special 10, so is there already some confusion about your find?) The greatest interest in variations seems to be in the colors, like the "Cop Car" Remington which seems to be less common the the Chocolate ones.

At the same time, there are numerous variations in the works with no signal at all about it, like the change in the Galaxie ribbon cover from the sliding mech to the hinged design. And nobody cares about that either.

"someone on the Typewriter Database" might be a complete newbie trying to be helpful or a knowledgeable but fussy completist---we don't know. There aren't really production numbers and even if there were, it's unlikely a factory would track minor variations within a year's production of Coronets. The closest you can come would be to do math on the serial numbers available.

Interesting questions, though.

 

28-12-2020 12:37:49  #3


Re: Rarity Question

Greetings RDR and welcome to the forum

As M. Höhne says, these machines are not rare, however they can be fun. The side loading cartridge allows one to change ribbon color within a matter of a few seconds. Colors that used to be available in the single pass polythene ribbons were permanent black, correctable black, clear lift off ribbon for the correctable black, blue, green, brown and red. There was also an opaque over-write for whiting out all colors of ink.

You may have noticed that the two very outside keys look a little different. The key caps and the type slugs are interchangeable and many different Change-A-Type keys and slugs are still available from various eBay sellers and the like. My two favorite changeable types are the Pi over Degree and the Happy Face over Sad Face. The latter of the two are quite few and far between, but they can still be found once in a while. All the best,

Sky


We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
 

28-12-2020 13:52:11  #4


Re: Rarity Question

Michael effectively answered the OP's questions with very good points.

From my own perspective, rarity (perceived or actual) is always trumped by practicality: I'm only interested in buying typewriters that I can actually use as opposed to functioning only as shelf décor. As a result I would pay less for the typewriter in question - if I would buy it at all - because it uses Smith-Corona's proprietary ribbon cartridge. Sky might like them, but I sure don't like buying them, which is why I normally limit myself to earlier Smith-Corona electric models that still used standard 13 mm ribbon. 


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

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