hello fellow Curta collectors,

I found this very intriguing early type I Curta on eBay :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Curta-Herzstark-Rechenmaschine-Typ-1-/131418251655?pt=Antike_B%C3%BCrotechnik&hash=item1e99236187

Has anyone ever seen an early type I with this kind of baseplate ? The engraving should be in a circular fashion. It does not even look like later baseplate, the number seems to be slightly misaligned with the "type I No." engraving that precedes it.

Not to mention that the crank, the engraving on the body and the canister do not fit with such an early model.

It definitely looks like a model that was assembled with spare parts but overall it looks in pristine condition.

Any thoughts ?

That's a machine that someone dropped on its crank, needing the top plate replaced. See that plastic clearing ring and thick snap-on snap-off clearing-ring post? That's a replacement top carriage. New canister too.

With respect to the baseplate, sure, it's not like the earlier ones. But it looks exactly like the baseplate on the 278xx and 739xx machines I pulled out of the box just now...possible misalignment and all, that curved printing looks a bit "off" on my machines too.

So, repair job for sure. In fact, the only parts of that machine that look legit for an older model are the sliders, the body (look at the reverser switch engraving) and the number on the baseplate. All else looks right for a much later machine!

EDIT: Actually the body is transitional as well, now that I look again. No numbering at the top of the sliders. Either that machine was almost totally replaced as part of a repair, or someone went to a lot of trouble to fit old sliders to a newer machine...hardly seems worth it to be frank