Western Electric Large Numbers??

[Khriselaine]

I saw a Western Electric rotary dial phone with large numbers recently.  Is there any value to these? Oh, it's black in color.  I can't find one on ebay at all! THANKS.

[Phonesrfun]

It could be one of two things.

A dial overlay that were sold at drug stores so that people could dial the phone without wearing glasses

Or a dial that only has the numbers on it that came from the manufacturer.  These are often called rural dials because for many early rural exchanges, no exchange names were associated with the number to be dialed.  These numbers-only dials were also used in dial PBX's and in some foreign countries where named prefixes were not used.

If it is a dial overlay, then the overlay adds nothing to the value of the phone.

If it is a numbers only dial, I would suspect that it may add something to the price just because there were fewer made, but you didn't say what model of phone you are asking about. 

Welcome to the forum.  Are you new to phone collecting?

[Khriselaine]

Thanks for replying. I am an ebay seller and love these old phones ....I saw this one last week and it will be sold this week.  I will have to check the dial when I get there. Here is the link for the photo of it...
http://www.auctionzip.com/Full-Image/1093081/fpx32.cgi.
again I thank you!

[paul-f]

Welcome to the group!

It looks like an add-on sticker, as Bill described.  A more common variety used a thick plastic overlay with large numbers and letters and a company ad.

The stickers were thin and usually cheaply produced.

Does anyone here collect these?  

Here are some photos from past auctions...

[tjmack99]

You may add more value if you throw in the "Snap-On Pin-up girl clock"