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1950 Smith Corona Sterling Serial # 5A211363 1950 Smith Corona Sterling typewriter, Serial # 5A211363 Anthony Mindling's 1950 Smith Corona Sterling typewriter. 2022-02-22 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Anthony Mindling: 1950 Smith Corona Sterling Serial # 5A211363 This typewriter is distinguished by the upright cursive font. Literature from Smith-Corona from around the time of its manufacture in 1950 calls the font "Medium Roman Script No. 32". It seems odd to me that the upper case characters resemble standard Courier, while only the lower case are in script. However fellow Typospherian, Jim Mackenzie, who kindly provided the literature describing the font to me, feels it makes the text more readable. To me the appearance of its text seems discordant, so in correspondence I normally use only the lower case, calling it my "e. e. cummings" typewriter. The key for the numeral "1" required some hunting to find it represented as a vertical bar with the "@" symbol. Nice paper support and setting the margins is straightforward.. It is fully functional except for the bell. Paper feeds OK with some help, but the platen is hard. Pitting of the chromed bits and a mild musty odor suggests that it experienced a humid environment, although there is no real rust. The carriage shift makes it pleasant to use.

1950 Smith Corona Sterling #5A211363

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Anthony Mindling (tmindling)
Created: 02-22-2022 at 06:01PM
Last Edit: 02-22-2022 at 06:12PM

Description Hunter 1 Photos 1 Like  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

Description:

This typewriter is distinguished by the upright cursive font. Literature from Smith-Corona from around the time of its manufacture in 1950 calls the font "Medium Roman Script No. 32". It seems odd to me that the upper case characters resemble standard Courier, while only the lower case are in script. However fellow Typospherian, Jim Mackenzie, who kindly provided the literature describing the font to me, feels it makes the text more readable. To me the appearance of its text seems discordant, so in correspondence I normally use only the lower case, calling it my "e. e. cummings" typewriter. The key for the numeral "1" required some hunting to find it represented as a vertical bar with the "@" symbol. Nice paper support and setting the margins is straightforward.. It is fully functional except for the bell. Paper feeds OK with some help, but the platen is hard. Pitting of the chromed bits and a mild musty odor suggests that it experienced a humid environment, although there is no real rust. The carriage shift makes it pleasant to use.

Typeface Specimen:

Photos:

Font description provided by Smith-Corona
Font description provided by Smith-Corona

Hunter: Anthony Mindling (tmindling)

Anthony Mindling's Typewriter Galleries [ My Collection ] [ My Sightings ]

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Almost at the same instant that the idea occurred to me of how much fun it might be for my children (7) and grandchildren (13) to get letters - real letters in the mail - i went digging through the dusty nether regions of our storage area to pull out my beloved 1957 Olympia SM3 Portable and the old Royal 10 I'd rescued from a neighbor's garbage can in the 1960's. Refurbishing them triggered a typewriter obsession. Don't tell my wife, but i believe there are now about 20 of them.

I love their looks, their intricate and precise mechanisms, and dinking around in the workshop tuning them up and bringing them back to life. i also, unfortunately, love the thrill of the hunt on eBay. But all of them are put to use for correspondence and my new hobby of decorated art letters. And sometimes they even inspire a bit of poetry.


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