Graflex.org

[Ltdave]

i just bought (not sure why i even bid lol) a 2x3 Speed Graphic with a Hugo Meyer side mounted rangefinder.

there is no data plate in the front cover and no evidence that one was ever there. no screw holes, no glue residue, no witness marks of aging around where one might have been.

ive looked with a high-power LED flashlight inside all around, and on the outside. the ONLY number i can find is 24455, on the little brass plate with Folmer Graflex Company and the settings for the focal plane shutter curtain.

it ALMOST looks like its a 'part number' for the plate and not necessarily a serial number for the camera.

it has a Kodak Ektar 107mm f3.7 lens and the Graphic (spring steel tab) back. the pop open window on the back for using the ground glass has leather flaps on the sides.

is this the serial number (24455)? i cant find any manufacturing date in this range except pre-20s or on another page/site somewhere between 1939 and 1946 as a 'miniature speed graphic' described as the first 2-1/4x3-1/4 model
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Air Force veteran who's trying to make it in the photography world

[Dan Fromm]

It sounds like a Miniature Speed Graphic. If it is, 24455 can be the first five digits of a six digit s/n. This fits in a block of 1000 Mini serial numbers 244106-245105 issued September 5, 1939. The next block of Miniature Speed Graphic serial numbers was issued October 5, 1939.

I haven't handled a Mini for decades. Are you sure that there's no s/n on the underside of the body's top panel and that 24455 really isn't a six digit number?

[Ltdave]

i found a number stamped in the top inside.

235914

someone found that it was 1 of 1,000 ordered by the factory on 17 November 1938.

thanks! sounds like you were on the same track as the other guy who reached out.

thank you!
_________________
Air Force veteran who's trying to make it in the photography world