How to date an AE 80?

[HobieSport]

Buy her flowers and chocolates?

But seriously, I just opened up an AE 80 for the first time and can't find any dates.  I know the AE 40s don't have dates, at least that I know of, but are the 80s also undatable? Please tell me I'm wrong. If there are no dates, how can I help find birthday phones for folks    

-Hobie

[mienaichizu]

I have 4 AE80's and all of them doesn't have date, but there is a way to know if your AE80 is late production. We have a discussion of it on the previous thread

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1103.0

[jsowers]

Buy her flowers and chocolates?

And pretty soon she's going to want a RING.

That's a good one, HobieSport. The lol of the day.

I've seen some AE80s with dates on the bottom, but they were 1950s models, as I recall. Some even had the month and it may have been in a string of numbers and not plain at all, like their WE counterparts. They did seem to plainly mark where the mounting screws were, though. I don't think you'll find the individual parts dated at all, so look on the base. I grew up with these phones and you'd think I'd know more about them or even collect them, but I always wanted what I didn't have.

[HobieSport]

Darn, I'm really bugged that AE didn't date their phones better, since helping hunt down birthday phones for folks is one of my favorite sports, and I love AE phones in general.

What about the AE 80Es? Do they have any dates on them? I ask because Foots here is looking for an AE 80E birthday phone (or anything in the AE family besides a Starlight) around 2/3/78.

-Hobie

[Dennis Markham]

I have a couple of the AE80e's.  They seem to have the date stamped right on the bottom.

[HobieSport]

I have a couple of the AE80e's.  They seem to have the date stamped right on the bottom.

Yay! It looks like Foots may be in luck then in finding a dated AE 80E for his B-Day Phone.

Dennis, have you ever found a date anywhere on an AE 40 or 80?

-Hobie

[Dennis Markham]

Yes.  The internal dated parts aren't like the Westerns.  I have an AE80 on my shelf that has a date on the bottom.  It reads 11-61-2.  So I don't know if it's from February 11th of 1961 or November 02nd.  Another black one just reads 12-59 on the bottom.  These are the older, heavy models.

If you guys would like a photo of the dates, I can do that.

I don't recall dates on the AE40's.

[foots]

If anyone should happen to be looking for a Starlite, either wall or desk model, they are dated. My wall phone actually made 31 years old last month - 3 months after me.
Hobie, I'm glad you made this post. I really don't know squat about late AE phones, except that I like the super smooth dials, they're good looking and the receiver volume is quite loud, and clear. 

[Dennis Markham]

Here are a couple photos.  Photo one and two are AE80's.  The older ones that are much heavier and have chrome plungers, handset cords mounted at the back.  The other two are photos of the bottoms of some later AE80e's.  These phones are very light and pretty "cheap" feeling.

[Phonesrfun]

Dennis,

Your first two photos seem to be of a Leich, not an AE80

-Bill

[JorgeAmely]

Bill:

Aren't they essentially the same?

[Phonesrfun]

Well, now, maybe you are right.  I don't follow the AE phones very much, but I do have a few.  The only Leichs I have are a magneto wood wall phone and a monstrosity known as a 901C.

However, the bases in Dennis' pictures do look like they are formed in every way like the AE 80's I have.  Now, that begs the question as to why?  Did AE do private labeling for Leich, or did AE buy Leich out at some point or both.  I may have read that story somewhere, but I do not recall.  The dates are stamped on the bases of my two legacy AE 80's but not in the same place or style as the Leich shown in Dennis' picture.  I guess it doesn't really matter, because I believe AE did date stamp their phones, but not as thoroughly as Bell.

So, I stand corrected, and chalk it up to learning something new every day.

-Bill

[Stephen Furley]

My 80 is marked, something 30 1974, the first two characters are smudged, and I can't read them.  They look like letters rather than digits, possibly MW, would that make any sense?  Is the 30 a day, in which case I'd expect to see a month as well, or is it a week, i.e. the 30th week of 1974?  I have seen other things with dates in this format.  It's also marked ND802190 CX X if any of that means anything to anybody.

My 40 doesn't seem to be marked, but there is a certain amount of dirt and corrosion on the base, so it's difficult to be sure.

My WE 500 seems to be marked:
C/S
500
11-70

I'm not certain about the S, it could be a 6, or the strange lower case g that you see in printed text, and which I thought looked like an insect when I was learning to read.

[JorgeAmely]

Stephen:

Some clues of the markings for the AE80 can be found here:

http://www.paul-f.com/AEcolors.htm

Just scroll towards the end. 19 indicates it is white. I guess made in 1974. The ringing capacitor may have a date code on the bottom of the side that faces the back of the phone.

[HobieSport]

Here are some pics of an AE 80/Leich Feb 1960 phone that I have.

Anything that anyone can tell me about this phone from these pics would be appreciated.

-Hobie