Century Typewriter Serial Numbers

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Also known as Brand: Caligraph • Century • New Century

Serial Number Table Last Edited: 12/11/24 04:16
NOTE: dates shown are JAN 1 unless noted, so the serial number shown is the *first* serial number produced the given year. Exceptions are serial numbers preceded by "up to"(where you can assume that the numbers reported in that subsection are DECEMBER 31, END OF YEAR NUMBERS) or rows where a month is given in the month column. If the serial number is shown as a range (xxxx-xxxx) it indicates that we know the entire range of serial numbers for the given year.

Caligraph
	1879-1880			George Washington N. Yost applies for principal patent in 1879, and with Franz X. Wagner (of future Underwood fame) forms Caligraph Patent Company in 1880. A Mr. Burn is also employed as an engineer. American Writing Machine Company is formed to manufacture and market the design.	125,161,162
	1882			American Writing Machine Company, 213 West 31st St., New York, NY.	163
	1883			Manufacturing moved to Corry, Erie Co., Pennsylvania. Business office now at No. 27 Union Square, New York, NY.	163
	1887			John Morrell Fairfield (of Hartford fame) takes over American Writing Machine, Co.	164
	1888			Manufacturing moved from Corry, Erie Co., Pennsylvania to Hartford, Conneticut.	164
	1889			G. W. Yost parts ways with American Writing Machine Company to later form Yost Typewriter.	162
				Since 1900: Union Typewriter Co. of America
				Location of Serial Number: stamped on back of front rail, right hand side.	163
Models and s/n	Y	M	D	Remarks	Ref.
No. 1 "Small"
	1880			10 lbs., 48 keys (six rows of 8 metal ringed keys), round platen, caps only. 25mm wide ribbon. Known serial range: #184 through #1509.	7,35,160, 163
No. 1 "Ideal"
	1882-1890/96			Introduced August 1882. 15 lbs, 15" front to back, 13" wide, 10" tall. 48 keys (six rows of 8 metal ringed keys), polygonal platen, caps only. 4 typefaces offered. 25mm wide ribbon. Known serial range: #1686 through #4023.	35,160,161, 162
				Caligraph No. 1 Keyboard Layout. Space bars to right and left of keyboard.	161
No. 2 "Ideal"
	1882-1890/94			21 lbs, 18" front to back, 14" wide, 12" tall. 72 keys, (six rows of 12 keys), Upper and Lower case. polygonal platen. 7 typefaces offered: Italic, large Roman, "new" medium Roman, medium Roman, small Roman, large & small Roman Caps, large & small Gothic caps. No. 2 also offered with wide carriage taking 11 1/2" wide paper printing a line 9 1/4" wide. Another model called No. 2 "Commercial" was offered caps-only, but had numerals in two sizes to enable typing fractions, but no known examples exist. 25mm wide ribbon. Known serial range: #5592 through #38287. Metal ringed keys up to approx. serial #14k-17k, then ebonite/vulcanite keys with paper legends covered by clear celluloid cap. In 1890, keys changed to a Vegetable Ivory keytop with engraved characters, then later the key shape was changed to hexagonal from round.	35,160,161, 162,163
				Caligraph No. 2 Keyboard Layout. Space bars to right and left of keyboard.	161
	1887			More than 13k of No. 1 & 2 sold by Jan. 1887.	161
	1889			Period advertisements show the No. 2 has a longer "nose". The purpose of the "nose" is to allow room for longer typelevers extending *behind* the typist's hands, providing enough leverage that keys required a depression of no more than 19/64ths of an inch to bring the typeface to the printing point. This idea was later used in the No. 10 Yost typewriter.	78,160
No. 3 "Ideal"
	1882			Beefier frame than No. 1 for office work, 25 lbs. 54 keys (six rows of 9 metal ringed keys). 4 type styles offered: large and small Gothic, large and small Roman. All-caps with 2 sizes of numerals for typing fractions. 25mm wide ribbon. No known examples.	35,160,163
No. 3 "Special"
	1890-1894			78 keys (six rows of 13 Vegetable Ivory keys). Single curved rod platen lift frame. polygonal platen. 25mm wide ribbon. * astrisk prefixed serial numbers, series restarted. Known serial range: #377 through #5404. There are some firm bills of sale for this model: Serial # 3240 sold in March 1892 Serial # 4378 sold in January, 1893 New Platen for #5240 on March, 1895 - so machine was sold new sometime between Jan, 1893 and March, 1895.	35,160
No. 3 "Special Brief"
	1892			No. 3 Special adapted for Legal paper and better manifolding. Possibly wide-carriage. No known examples.	160
No. 4
	1895			carriage release at the frontside of the machine, 78 keys (six rows of 13 Vegetable Ivory keys). Single curved rod platen lift frame, round platen. 25mm wide ribbon.	7,35,160
	1882-83 Caligraph 1, 2, 3 type samples				163
No. 5 "New Century"
	1898-1906			84 keys, taking 10 3/4" wide paper with a writing line of 7 1/2", 25mm wide ribbon. Design by Walter J. Barron.	16,35,78, 119
No. 6 "New Century"
	1900-1906			7 key- rows, 84 keys, 35mm wide ribbon. complete new design and technique	4,7,13, 24,35
No. 7 "New Century"
	1900-1906			Like Model 6, but with large carriage, 35mm wide ribbon.	4,13,24,35
No. 8 "New Century"
				Shift Model with 42 keys	4
Century No. 10
	1919-1924			Front-stroke visible, segment shift, 3-row machine marketed by American Writing Machine Co., 449 Central Ave., Newark, N. J. 17 lbs, 84 characters, takes paper 9 1/2" wide and has an 8" writing line. It was essentially a Remington Junior, made after Remington discontinued the Junior. Designed by Frank Sholes, grandson of Christopher Latham Sholes in 1914. First letter of serial number indicates Model (Century 10 = "H") Second letter indicates Month: Jan=P, Feb=M, Mar=L, Apr=K, May=X, June=S, Jul=V, Aug=E, Sep=D, Oct=C, Nov=Z, Dec=A First number in serial indicates year number: HS9 = June, 1919	4,13,18, 59,119