Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Peter, I spoke with Jim Lager regarding this serial number issue. He told me that the earliest documented serial numbers were in the 90,000 to 95,000 range dating from late 1931 to early 1932. As far as serial number 156001 being the starting number in all the published literature, he feels this was arbitrarily picked by Laney, Rogliatti, et al. THe records in the archives are very hard to read, but Jim does have documentation of earlier serial numbers from the factory records. He feels it would require a great deal of research effort to fully bring to light these earlier serial number records. Currently, this is almost impossible as the current curator of the Solms archives, Hendrick Hössel, is ill. Jim was unable to access the archives during his recent trip to Solms/Wetzlar. He also stated that the accepted serial number records for camera production are rife with errors, even though everyone accepts these as gospel. As far as your lens #147980 is concerned, Jim told me production should be in 1933, barring any contradictory evidence from the factory records. Bill Rosauer