Originally Posted by
Charlee
I think you have a 1948, because it looks like a "JC" to me.
The badge on the front of the machine. Does it have a blue ring with the dates 1851-1951? That would indicate a Centennial machine. If it's a black ring, or just solid brass, it lends to the 1948 date.
Definately not a 1904 machine, they didn't have the 15-91 then.
Thanks Charlee! It is just a brass ring. The 1948 date is more in line with what the seller told me. And I read on one site that the manufacturing of these machines took time, and the plate with the serial # might have been made early in the process. So by the time the machine was completed, delivered to where ever it was going to be sold, and made its way into the buyers hand - that could take a couple of years (hence the discrepancy some find on when they believe their machine to have been made with when it was actually manufactured). As she told me 1951 - the 1948 date fits more with that logic. Strange C though. I did try cleaning the plate with diluted Dawn, but that line almost seems etched in. It would be an almost enclosed C. Maybe that's how they made C's back then - start with an O or 0 and then put a little dash in it to denote it was a C.