Is this a Western Electric payphone

[Witty]

The owner of this phone tells me it is marked Western Electric Company Inc.  The photo looks more like an Automatic Electric payphone.   Am I missing something or did they make WE payphones like this?

Sorry for the poor photo, it's the best he has right now.

Thanks,
Ken

[Phonesrfun]

The dial is AE, but the photo is not clear enough for me to see the coin return bucket or the back of the handset or the hook to ID it as AE all the way around.  The hook looks like it is probably AE, but then again, the photo is very grainy.

Since the dial is AE, I would say it is a pretty good bet that the whole thing is AE and not Western Electric.  Since it is sitting in an old phone booth that might be WE, perhaps the seller is thinking that the phone is WE too.

[poplar1]

The instruction cards are the type used by phonecoinc. I am guessing that this is one of their 90% reproduction phones; only the dial and handset are older than the year 2000. They are making a lower housing that says "Western Electric Company" that at first glance looks like the 1934-1940 Western Electric model. The backs of these phones are completely flat; the coin chute is made out of sheet metal with two gongs from a 500 set instead of the original bell for 5c/10c and gong for 25c. If you go to phonecoinc.com you will find these.

[TelePlay]

I've always thought that an AE payphone did not have a coin return in the upper right corner and the WE did. At least for rotary payphones. Am I wrong?

[Phonesrfun]

The lack of a  bent coin release button is yet another indication that it is not WE, however, early WE had no return button either.

I don't know what Phoneco did as far as Franken-Pay-Phones go, but Polar1 could very well be correct.  It may be a Frankenphone.  Good point.

[dpaynter1066]

ASk for a look inside,  dont pay big money for a pig in a poke.