Soft Plastic 1958 LT Beige 500

[AE40FAN]

Has anyone noticed the different colors used over the course of soft plastic 500 date/time stampings?  My guess is the earlier ones were yellow, then green, and later ones are in red.  Does this seem correct?  Seems all my early soft plastics are stamped in yellow.  I've seen photos of some in the later part of the 50's stamped in green. Also,  I have a late hard plastic 59' stamped in red.   Can anyone confirm this?

[jsowers]

I went through lots and lots of pictures and here are my results, for what they're worth...

red w/yellow stamps: 6-54, 10-54, 1-55, 12-55, 2-56, 5-56, 9-56, 10-56, 12-56
red w/yellow and green stamps: 7-57, 11-57
red w/green stamps: 6-58, 9-58, 5-59
red w/red stamps: 5-59

green w/yellow stamps: 4-53, 1-55, 9-55, 12-55, 5-56, 11-56, 1-57, 12-57, 2-58
green w/yellow and green stamps: 10-57, 3-58
green w/green stamps: 2-58, 11-58, 1-59

ivory w/yellow stamps: 11-54, 12-54, 5-56, 11-57, 9-58
ivory w/yellow and green stamps: 12-57
ivory with green stamps: 11-58, 12-58
ivory with red stamps: 5-59

light gray w/green stamps: 1-58, 6-58, 2-59

dark gray w/yellow stamps: 8-54, 11-55, 3-56, 10-56, 11-56

pink w/green stamps: 10-57, 2-58, 3-58, 6-58, 5-59, 6-59
pink w/red stamps: 8-58

aqua blue w/green stamps: 12-57, 5-58, 8-58, 10-58, 2-59, 5-59

light beige w/green stamps: 10-57, 1-58, 3-58, 9-58, 12-58, 2-59
light beige w/yellow and green stamps: 11-58
light beige w/red stamps: 9-59

dark beige w/yellow stamps: 9-54, 1-55, 9-55, 1-56, 8-56, 12-56, 3-57

brown w/yellow stamps 3-55

black w/yellow stamps: 6-55
black w/green stamps: 4-56

yellow w/yellow stamps: 1-56, 8-56, 10-56
yellow w/green stamps: 9-57, 9-58, 5-59

dark blue w/yellow stamps: 8-54, 8-55, 12-56
dark blue w/green stamps: 3-57

white w/green stamps: 2-58, 3-58, 5-58, 1-59

So in stamp colors, yellow does seem to be early, followed by green and then red at the end. But they overlap. Some have two colors (counting the handset pieces and the housing).

The date stamp info comes from pictures of my phones and a friend who's also a collector. We take pictures of all the date stamps including the handset pieces and the housing. Sometimes the date stamps aren't very legible and I didn't include those. I hope this answers your question. It was interesting to see for myself which colors were used in which years.

[AE40FAN]

Jsowers,

I appreciate all of your research and to me your conclusion makes sense.  The reason I even inquired is because recently I purchased from Ebay what I believe to be a soft plastic light beige.  It has black numbers on the dial plate so i know it  isn' t rose beige.  6 hole ear and mouth caps.  Also, photos of the underside reveal an illegible green stamping underneath front of housing.  The only thing that throws me off is the baseplate is dated 10/55.  I figure the plastics were refurbed sometime early on.  I just hope it does not end up being early hard plastic which still has date stampings and 6 hole caps.

[jsowers]

I'm also hoping it's an early refurb. They did that a lot more that you'd think. Putting new plastics on an older base happened in the 1950s too. I've seen dates in a three-year range like 1957-58-59 on some phones I have. Let us know how yours turns out.

[poplar1]

[EDIT: PLEASE DISREGARD THE FOLLOWING TABLE BASED ON INCORRECT CONCLUSIONS ON MY PART]

I'm still wondering about a 3-59 green 500; I was hoping that it was "soft plastic," but I'm not sure.

              Soft Plastic                                  Soft Plastic
Color       Theoretical production:                Observed production (based on above):

-3          1950 (180,000)-1964                   6/55-4/56               (BLACK)

"1953 Colors"
-50        1953-1959                                 11/54-5/59             (IVORY)
-51        1953-1959                                 4/53-1/59                (GREEN)
-52        1953- M.D. 1957                         8/54-11/56             (GRAY)
-53        1953-1959                                 6/54-5/59                (RED)

"1954 Colors"
-54      1954- M.D. 1957                           3/55                        (BROWN)
-55      1954- M.D. 1957                           9/54-3/57                (BEIGE)
-56      1954-1959                                   1/56-5/59                 (YELLOW)
-57      1954- M.D. 1957                           8/54-3/57                 (BLUE)

[1958] "Call Director Colors" (per B.B. Wingo) and 1959 "Princess Colors"
-58      1957-1959                                2/58-1/59                 (WHITE)
-59      1957-1959                                10/57-6/59               (PINK)
-60      1957-1959                                10/57-9/59               (LIGHT BEIGE)
-61      1957-1959                               1/58-2/59                 (LIGHT GRAY)
-62      1957-1959                               12/57-5/59               (AQUA BLUE)

[AE40FAN]

Poplar,

I was unaware soft plastic still existed in 9/59.   " -60  1957-1959  10/57-9/59 (LIGHT BEIGE)".   Your 3-59 Green should be soft plastic as from what I've read on here 6/59 should have been the cut off for soft plastic.

[poplar1]

These are the range of dates (including 9-59) provided by Jim. I'm hoping others will contribute dates from their collection.

[jsowers]

Who is Jim? Did you mean Jonathan (me)? The dates I provided were from phones with housing and handset date stamps and weren't meant to convey the production range in colors of soft plastic 500s. Yes, they do span the gamut, but some of the phones I listed are hard plastic and still have date stamps. They were still date stamping phones until late in 1959.

It was the date stamp dates and not the type of plastic I was recording. Soft plastic ceased production in June, 1959 except for brown and black. I'm assuming the brown keysets were soft plastic, but have never personally seen one to know for sure. They used up the remaining soft pieces throughout the rest of 1959 and by 1960 I think they were totally hard plastic (ABS).

Sorry if I misled anyone. Yes, it would be interesting in a different topic to know who has the earliest and latest of which color. And what's stamped on the housing isn't always what's on the base, so how you record the date is debatable.

[AE40FAN]

Well, for anyone who is interested I received the phone today!  It is definitely a early factory refurb to -60 Lt Beige.  Dates on base/network/ringer/and dial are 10/55 and all plastics date from 2-58-10-58.   While phone is dirty with slightly faded cords there are no deep scratches, chips, cracks, or permanent stains.  Big bonus is the original dial card was found underneath one that was stickered on at a later date!!   Also, interestingly the handset is stamped in green 2-58 and right below that pressed in the actual plastic is a 57 with a circle.  Quite unusual if you ask me.   In addition,  I can guarantee it was a factory refurb and not on field due to the over painted dial stamp on the back of the dial. 

[Jim Stettler]

Who is Jim? Did you mean Jonathan (me)? The dates I provided were from phones with housing and handset date stamps and weren't meant to convey the production range in colors of soft plastic 500s. Yes, they do span the gamut, but some of the phones I listed are hard plastic and still have date stamps. They were still date stamping phones until late in 1959.

It was the date stamp dates and not the type of plastic I was recording. Soft plastic ceased production in June, 1959 except for brown and black. I'm assuming the brown keysets were soft plastic, but have never personally seen one to know for sure. They used up the remaining soft pieces throughout the rest of 1959 and by 1960 I think they were totally hard plastic (ABS).

Sorry if I misled anyone. Yes, it would be interesting in a different topic to know who has the earliest and latest of which color. And what's stamped on the housing isn't always what's on the base, so how you record the date is debatable.

I have a brown key set and it is soft plastic. I believe all of them were. WE  offered the keyset in brown after they MD'd brown 500's. I don't know if this was due to the supply on hand or other reasons (Jonathan , any insight on this).

It would be interesting to see the latest date stamp for a brown keyset. The black soft plastic sets seemed to be run the longest of any color.

Some 302's and princess phones were also made of soft plastic, the colors were soft plastic color vs "Official" listed colors.
ISTR that some of the second color palate of 500's came in hard or soft plastic depending on date and  plant where built. I believe these sets were a close match in color to their counterparts, but soft plastic collectors need to verify this.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My impression is that Bell sometimes  used early  molds for oddball sets.  A good example is G "pronged" handsets w flat transmitter cups vs "un pronged" G handsets w/"pronged" handset cups.

The dates of these sets fall later than Paul F.'s chart for standard 500 sets (probably because they didn't use them on standard 500's). From a manf. standpoint it was a good practice. Set up a small line w/ outdated molds to produce specialty sets.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JMO,
Jim

[jsowers]

Thanks for posting the pictures of your light beige early refurb. You don't often see a re-stamped color on the back of the dial. Sometimes they painted over the original stamp and didn't re-stamp it. I have no explanation of the handset being from 57 and 58.

I'm glad it was good news on the plastics and the surprise card. It's funny--this phone was renewed early in its life and then spent 55 or so years pretty much untouched.

Jim S--Thanks for the info on the brown keysets being soft plastic. There's no way to know if they had a surplus on hand or what the reason was for continuing to make them in brown.

If you look up pictures of the Truman Library in Independence, MO, you will see Harry S. Truman had a brown soft plastic keyset on his desk in the library, which was built in 1957. You can make out the clear fingerwheel in some pictures I've seen and on an episode of Jack Benny I have on DVD where he visits the library. I found a couple pictures online...

[DrBob]

Question from a new guy 

How does one decipher the date code on the shells?

I have a black 500 shell which I believe is soft plastic that I was going to clean up for my 2/57 phone, it has a green date stamp of 5 2 45 88.

I'm guessing this is a 5/24/58 shell?


Bob

[decked002]

I hope i'm not hijacking this thread, but i have the same question about metal body 102 W.E. telephones.

I recently purchased a 102 round base with 534 ringer box from a reputable seller on Ebay.

It has the typical " B1" stamp on the neck; the W.E. logo on the underside of the handset, and along the bottom edge it has tamped " W.E. made in USA patent No. .... " with a date of Sept.16,1925.

I've seen this same stamp on other W.E. 102's, as well on the side of the protruded dial plate  - usually with multiple dates, and others with no patent stamp at all.

My question is, does having this patent stamp authenticate the telephone? Having the patent stamped on a certain part of the telephone make it authentic or is it all irrelevant?

[AE40FAN]

Yes,

The odd 57 stamp in the handset intrigues me.   I'm wondering if anyone else has ever come across something like this?  Phone, as dirty as it was, is cleaning up nicely and I will post after photos.  Footpads will need to be redone but, that's for another day.

[AE40FAN]

I did a quick clean up with Flitz and Novus 2.  I also reversed recoiled the cord on a dowel and stuck it in the freezer.   Cords are faded (too bad they don't make beige Kool-Aid ) and line cord still needs to be cleaned up and reattached.  Footpads will eventually need to be recovered.  I ended up going with a repro dial card as the other was just too browned and did not contrast well against the beige.  Before and after photo.