Old/new Leica ?

[jerzy]

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vor 30 Minuten schrieb LDBennett:

I am convinced it is not a forgery

no, it is not. Discrepancy between visible and hidden serial number happe n seldom  but they exist. Here is one exampe of human error during initial production - person assembling the camera reached for a wrong top cover. Most probably exist as well camera with 71978 on top and 71979 inside. Remark- this is not a conversion, camera was produced initially as model II, but this is a different story on which I am working now.

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Another discrepancy is when parts of 2 cameras have been "married", such thing happened by third party. Here is an example of former IA 35633. This camera was originaly IA black painted and was converted by Leitz to chrom plated II - top plate with number 35633 was replaced during conversion therefore serial is engraved and not scratched. Later, most probably because top cover must have been damaged, a third party workshop took top cover from another camera (18836) and put it on.

For a user such things are not so important but I find them very interesting.

[LDBennett]

People make mistakes and bored technicians can mix up parts during reassembly. What I find interesting is this technician on my camera knew the two serial numbers did not match. So he scratched through the original number on the original top plate. Based on pictures of other cameras like this, mine seems to be in pretty good shape as far as outer appearance. Years ago I did get the balky shutter curtain working OK with a simple tension adjustment to one of the curtains. The shutter speeds all seem timed correctly even today. I have no recollection of ever loading this camera with film. It has been for display only over the years. Thanks for all the conversations. I learned a lot that I did not know, especially about the process of conversion from a Model I to a Model III.

LDBennett