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Similar to this other, partial label on another machine for sale in Japan...
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My wife tells me I missed the obvious...
Hermes 3000S(wedish)![]()
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I have had a look on the Antique Typewriter Collector's Group on Facebook, and I've saw some people asking the same question about the "Hermes 3000 S". It appears that some collectors hold it in the same regard as the Facit 1620, but other collectors have regarded it as a complete piece of trash...interesting.
Opinions seem to differentiate on this machine, but the only way to know what it's like to use, would be to buy it.
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I would jump on a decent one if for $ 100 USD or less. But not at $ 200-300 and more.
And then, I would still be tempted to put a new label on the machine which reads as "Really A Facit".
I like the design of the lid/case...
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Another one on eBay out of N. Carolina State. Case is cracked along the back and missing plastic chunks.
Price is too high for me...
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I saw a video on Youtube with a similar machine, and that one was made in Poland instead of Sweden. From that we can make an educated guess that this is indeed a Facit Privat/1620, which was made to look like a 3rd gen Hermes 3000. I had one of those Facits, made in Sweden in the 1970s, and I quite liked it. The brown faux leather case was probably the best I've seen, with plenty of space to store your papers and stationery.
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Yes....my Facit 1620 made in 1969.
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I have been following sales of these Hermes 3000S machines for a couple of years now.
1. Since many machines for sale originate in Japan and they have a Yen key-top, some have theorized these machines were made for the Japanese marketplace only. However, there have been a couple of machines with the typical French layout (and no Yen key-top), and even one with Spanish characters/accents and also with no Yen key-top. Even 2 machines with the typical USA layout and again no Yen key-top.
2. There are even some wide-character machines with 140 characters across the platen.
3. Serial numbers I have found over the past couple of years place their SN's right in the middle of the Facit 1620 SN range. This indicates the Hermes 3000S were not in their own, unique grouping of SN's but rather inter-mixed with the 1620 numbering scheme.
I hope to add one of these Hermes 3000S to my collection, one day.
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Here are the side-views of a Facit 1620, the Hemes 3000 made in France, and the Hermes 3000S for comparison.
You can see the similarity of the Facit 1620 and the Hermes 3000S pretty clearly.
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