My first 500 1959

[happy hooligan]

Here's my first 500. 

I found a 1959 500 by Western Electric.

It looks un-touched and the photos are as I received it.

G1 headset.  and dated 12-59 inside, although the underside doesn't have a date like most I see...?

The cord to the wall though looks to have a 63 stamped in the metal  and the plastic case has a 64 molded into it.

Is this a 1964 phone with old parts?

here's some pics...

[Dan]

It's an original 1959 with a refurbishment that included a new housing (still could be soft plastic-smell it) and a new wall cord. If you look on the bottom, the date was painted over where the C/D 500 is now. If you could magically remove that black paint (it looks blacker and shiny-er than the rest of the black ) you would see a date of probably 12-59 there.

We had a debate a few months ago how to date these phones and the consensus was, if I remember correctly, we looked at the base date or ringer date and most thought this was the true phone date .

Nice phone, by the way. Look @ the underside of the dial. It hopefully says 7D with a 3 for the black color, or even it could be a 7A dial (a minor difference)

[Dan/Panther]

Dan;
Didn't we decide that the base and network which are pretty much permanently connected were the best way to determine date. The ringer could be easily changed, but the network would most likely show it had been tampered with.
D/P

[Dan]

You are right panther Dan, I remembered wrong.So Holligan's phone is a 12-1959 because of the network.

[McHeath]

It's a nice phone, and a child of the 50's by the skin of it's teeth eh?  What's with that huge C/D and 500 writing on the bottom?  I've seen that only a time or two otherwise and it's pretty odd to me, such large writing that does not fit the other markings we usually see.

[AET]

Barely a child of the 50's just like my pop!  Born 12/28/59.

[Dennis Markham]

Happy, it is a nice phone.  I really like the Party Line dial card.  It's a 1959 that was refurbished sometime later (1964) as Dan said.  1959 was the first year for those large rubber/neoprene foot pads.  Had it been built in 1964 they would have been the round type.  G1' were still around in 1964.  Generally the bottom date and network dates were the same.  I have seen them with like December of 57 on the network and Jan of 58 on the bottom.  I've found that the only real changes are from the dial up, plus new cords.  Often the dials stay the same too with only the plastic changed.  I doubt you will find a 7A dial (of course there are exceptions) on a phone as late as 1959.  I don't recall seeing them much after 1953, 1954.  A nice first 500 for sure.

[happy hooligan]

looking under the dial it says 7D-3   7 61

On looking very closely at the black paint on the back I'm making out...

A/B
532
12-59

or at least that's what I can make out...

[Dennis Markham]

That's interesting.  As you can see at Paul Fassbender's site the 532 A/B was a single line set with a volume control knob for hearing impaired.  Looking at the photo of your phone...the third photo down of the base, it looks like at one time there may have been a screw attached there???  It's possible during refurbishment the volume control knob was removed and a standard C/D 500 was made out of the set.

Here's the page that shows a 532 A/B

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm

[benhutcherson]

Just as a side note, networks were in fact sometimes changed.

Please see this example from my personal collection for evidence of such

[Dennis Markham]

You know Ben, I never thought of that (networks being change).  But certainly you have one.  Did you post this once before?  Seems now I remember seeing that somewhere.

[Dan/Panther]

Then that about leaves an untampered with base to I.D., a phone ?
D/P

[benhutcherson]

Dennis,
I did post about the same telephone a couple of weeks ago.

This particular one had some other peculiarities, including a straight handset cord with a  restraint dated '63, and screwed on plastic feet.

[Dennis Markham]

I guess it all just reinforces the "anything goes" rule.  Anything was possible to get the phones back out into the working world.

[McHeath]

I'd still vote that the date of a phone is the base plate date, like the frame of a car dates it as well.  Usually the network is a match, give or take a month or two, but if it's been changed out, and the dial, and the plastics, and the feet, and the cords, well, it's still started it life in whatever year that base plate was made and so it's journey begins there.

My 2 centavos.