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who among us has the newest coloured soft plastic 500 ?

Started by david@london, May 14, 2013, 06:10:31 PM

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what is the date inside the housing of your newest soft plastic 500 ?

late 1958
2 (50%)
jan 1959
0 (0%)
feb 1959
0 (0%)
mar 1959
0 (0%)
april 1959
1 (25%)
may 1959
1 (25%)
later (please specify)
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 4

david@london

reading magic mo's post today re. her aqua blue 500 with a date of april 1959 inside the shell, i just wondered if anyone has a soft plastic 500* with a date on the plastics later than may 1959, which i believe is the accepted cut-off date before ABS was introduced.
my latest is 12/58. i have a soft plastic 591 dated 5/59 on the base, but the housing dates from 10/58.


*coloured sets (not black)

LarryInMichigan

We know that black soft plastic 500 shells were made well into the 1960s. 

Larry

david@london

very true larry - i'm thinking of coloured sets........i just remembered the later soft black sets, then saw yr post.
the question has been amended.

AE40FAN

How about who amongst us has the earliest hard plastic (abs)?

jsowers

Here's my reply to both. My oldest soft plastic has a 6-59 date on the base but a 5-7-59 date on the housing. It's a phone originally from Winston-Salem, NC, just a few miles north of me, so it's one of my favorite phones. It even has the original PArk number card on it. See the pictures below.

The earliest all hard plastic 500 I have is from 7-59 and it's green. It has an odd location to the date stamp too. It's on the side rather than the front edge. See the pictures below.

Many phones from June, 1959 on have combination hard and soft plastic pieces and I call them combo phones. You can tell because  the plastics faded differently and it's usually the dial that's soft plastic and the rest hard plastic. This went on in some colors until January, 1960 when I think all the soft plastic pieces were finally used up for color phones.

One reason I think they converted to hard plastic when they did was the Princess phone. It began production at the same time in mid-1959 and was (except for a few) all hard plastic from the outset.
Jonathan