M4 top plate - alternate model designation

[jpprince]

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Hi Gentlemen, this is my first post on this Forum, although I’ve been a Leica user since the Nineties. Does someone have knowledge to share on this alternate Leica M4 model designation, sometimes encountered on the camera’s top plate? The vast majority of M4’s show the model designation with an “open 4”, before the serial number. However, a small amount of cameras show a “closed 4”, like in the attached picture. The M and the 4 look closer to each other, the M’s central vee is shallower, and the 4 looks wider.

As a Canadian, I’ve been tempted to link this different lettering font to domestic production (as is the case with M2’s and M3’s from ELC), but the few serial numbers I’ve found over the years don’t obviously relate (chrome finish unless noted otherwise):

1175086 - Wetzlar

1175408 - Wetzlar - "The grown-up camera" Leitz USA print ad, circa 1967

1175440 - Wetzlar

1175951 - Wetzlar

1184320 - Wetzlar, black chrome

1185896 - Wetzlar

1384047, 1384048 - Midland, black chrome

1413356 - Wetzlar, black chrome

I had also surmised that these might be replacement top plates, but the Leitz ad, and the “factory stock” look in general, seem to invalidate that theory.

 

Any thoughts?

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[madNbad]

My M4  is from the second production run in 1967, 1188-979 and it has a closed 4. Maybe it was a cost savings plan in the later models?

Edited April 14, 2022 by madNbad

[jc_braconi]

This one is  with an open 4

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