3 Oct 2013

Dating 1960s Smith-Coronas Through Advertising

1957

We begin with the classic late 50s lineup. Silent-Supers in colours, along with the Sterling and Skyriter in grey and green.

1958

One change is made to the lineup of manual portables: updating the Skyriter to give it white keys and a slightly modified logo.

1959

Now the Galaxie is introduced with the white front panel.

1960

One year later, 1959 models are still being sold (likely just old stock).

1960

Sold alongside the new Galaxie, of course.

1962

By 1962 the Galaxie has superseded the Silent-Super entirely, and a modified Sterling (probably introduced in 1961) is sold. The Skyriter is updated once more (now made in England as well).

1963

Galaxie remains unchanged, the Skyriter is replaced by the Corsair, and the Sterling gets a facelift. Also, the introduction of the Coronet electric.

1964

One year later there are no changes, but the old Electric is still being sold.

1964

Galaxie II is introduced, with the jeweled bearing and Change-A-Type.

1965

Same Galaxie II unchanged for the next year.

1966

Super Sterling now replaces the Sterling in a Galaxie-style body. Corsair has red function keys.

1966 

1968

The Galaxie Deluxe with tabulator bar and half/rapid spacing is introduced, possibly in 1967.

1969

No apparent change for 1969.

1970
Corsair Deluxe replaces the Corsair, and the red keys are gone.

This is by no means comprehensive, or for that matter totally accurate, but it's what I could gather with advertisements! I hope that it will be helpful for dating your 1970s SCM machines. It also shows that SCM sold older typewriters longer than I'd previously known.

9 comments:

  1. That's actually very helpful in determining years based on features, look and model. Better than what we have now, which is *nothing* :D

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    1. I'd always wanted some resource at least, and since there wasn't one I created something useful. :) Though it's a shame they stopped advertising their manual portables after about 1970, from what I can find, so we don't have any help dating the later Galaxies in this manner.

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  2. Nice post. I have it book marked for reference. Quite a bit of good information from those ads.

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  3. Holy-moley, I just picked up a Galaxie II (and just put up a post about it) and couldn't figure out the serial number year, despite Ted's excellent database. Thanks a heap, Nick! I think I've narrowed it down to 1964-1966. AND I think I've got a name for it- the Fox. Even though I don't normally name my typewriters.
    Looks like the stars were aligned. I had a question and you had the answer, and I didn't even have to ask! Thanks again!

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    1. I saw your blog post and commented before you saw mine. XD

      Well, this is exactly what the typosphere needed. No serial number progress was being made so we needed -something-. Also, Fox is an excellent name. :) You were lucky to find Congress elite on a Smith-Corona.

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  4. Very useful! I'm surprised that the Galaxie was introduced already in 1959. Surely they must have advertised somewhere after 1970...

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    1. It may have been pre-order in 1959? Perhaps they wanted to keep up their system of releasing new model ranges on every XXX9 year. I'm afraid it was all electric at that point, as far as their ads seem to go!

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  5. Wondering if you might have the magazines that these ads come out of? Might like to find other copies of the ads............. Thanks

    Analog Communications
    http://dwabrenaissance.blogspot.com

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    1. Nope, these are just listed individually on eBay. Many of the ads appear to be part of a much larger magazine that's likely for advertising products.

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