Olivetti Lettera 32 Serial Number Location

I'm glad that I'm having such a positive (I think, unless your wife begs to differ) influence from all the way over here! One less machine languishing on a thrift store shelf is always a good thing if you ask me. Ah, yes, the irresistible duplicates.

Backuptrans android key. I've been there:-) This would have been hard to pass up for me too, especially having been made in the Ivrea factory and all (not one of the later Barcelona ones). Looks like it types beautifully, and it'll look perfect once you have the ribbon cover sorted out.

NOTE: Olivetti Duo-Pak ribbons enable you to throw away both spools when changing your ribbon and make your ribbon change much easier. Consult your Olivetti representative for information. Olivetti Underwood Studio 44 (1965). Next Olivetti Underwood Lettera 32. Hi my serial number for olivetti studio 44 is 1012361, i cannot find the year made.

Also love the picture of the back - you are right, if I didn't know better and saw that image out of context, I would think it was a giant shipping container! @ I dream lo-tech, yes, I know. Famous last words, as they say. @ Matt, I just checked the numbers on both of them. My Lettera 32 I got back in 1981 (if I recall correctly. May have been '82) has a serial number of 9805382 and it's a Spanish-made model.

This new one that I purchased the other day has a serial number 1741050 and it's made in Italy. I thought that perhaps the vast difference in serial numbers may have been due to the different countries of production. Thanks for looking into this, Matt!

I've been making a game effort today to catch up with emails. I noticed that one question which keeps cropping up concerns the problem of finding the serial number on old typewriters - particularly Smith Premiers.

By chance, I came across this page from No 8, August 1989, which gives the location of numbers on early American typewriters. It came from Typewriter Topics of June 1912, almost 100 years ago, and was supplied by Ed Peters.

(You will note the little-known Conover of 1912 is connected to the Chicago and the Munson; the Chicago was also marketed as the Baltimore, Draper [1900], Galesburg, Ohio and Yale [1906].) Most new collectors pretty quickly find their way to Dirk Schumann's to see when their machines were made, but it seems a few have difficulties finding the serial number to check against the dates on Dirk's database. So here is the page from ETCetera, I hope it helps.