1957 WE 554 Dial Markings

[magicbrain]

I got this green WE 554 with matching 172B back board a while ago.
The interesting part is the dial marking - the "7C-51" has been mostly scratched away & was re-stamped "7D"
As the rest of the phone is all dated 7-57, it must have replaced at some point (in or around 1964 due to the "L64" stamp?)
I've seen other dials re-stamped, but black paint was used to cover the original markings.

[jsowers]

Nice 554, complete with the original card too. That L64 stamp is hard to see, and stamped sideways.

From what I can decipher, the 7D dial was a replacement for the earlier 7A and was meant for black phones and came with a black metal fingerwheel. The 7C was meant for color phones and came with the spider and a clear plastic fingerwheel. So why did someone mark through this one and re-stamp if it's still green? Strange.

Attached pic of correct dial restamp. Maybe this was a new guy on the job?

[Key2871]

Yea that's my thinking, some newbie just had to up date the numbers.. I got a set once that had a tag that read "this is a student phone, if any problems were found refur to this number" and there was the number 85 written on it. I'd never seen that before, or since. And some of the markings were updated.

[RotarDad]

If this phone is all matching dates except for the slightly later 9-57 dial, then I would guess a refurb (serviced) dial was either added later ('64 ?) by a field repair guy, or perhaps the dial was replaced in the field with something else (a #9 dial for example), and a collector put back in the closest dated dial they could find.  I'm wondering if that 7C-5X code may not be a -51 (green code) after all.

Still a super nice phone..... 

[magicbrain]

If this phone is all matching dates except for the slightly later 9-57 dial, then I would guess a refurb (serviced) dial was either added later ('64 ?) by a field repair guy, or perhaps the dial was replaced in the field with something else (a #9 dial for example), and a collector put back in the closest dated dial they could find.  I'm wondering if that 7C-5X code may not be a -51 (green code) after all.

Still a super nice phone..... 

Thanks - That was the best picture I could get of the markings -  under magnification you can still see the top of the "1" - the only other digit it could possibly be is a "4" for Mahogany Brown(code 54), which I doubt with the 9-57 date.
I think it was probably replaced as you suggested in the field with what they "had on the truck" & just coincidence it originally had a code for green on it & a close date.
I bought this phone last year at a local flea market from a dealer who thought he got it at an estate sale - it still had the screws sticking out of the back board that had attached it to the wall.