Phonoland

Posted: **Tue Jul 22, 2014 8:29 pm**

Hi Guys,

Random thought, can any information be deciphered by the serial numbers of Rockola jukeboxes?

Just wondering if it has any meaning other than higher numbers = later production time.

Thanks
Adam

Posted: **Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:09 pm**

Here's a list of Rock-Ola serial numbers

http://tomszone.com/serialrock.html

Looking through it, there seems to be no addition information available other than the number.

The numbers don't always follow on, probably because sometimes, I suspect, different models were being made at the same time.

Posted: **Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:49 am**

And to add to Doghouse's statement--there were times when ALL of the factories "cheated", so I've been told. Most of this occurred when they had "flooring plans", that were provided by a bank, or finance co. I have heard "stories" about at least one of the major makers, putting bricks into crates, and shipping them to a storage area, to get "cash".
Ron Rich

Posted: **Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:14 pm**

There's differences in the first and last serial numbers recoded by both "Jukebox World" and "The Incomplete Jukebox." Certainly with mine.

My 443 is numbered before the latter's first number.

Certainly, for my two machines.

My 443 was one of the first few hundred produced and the 468 was one in the last thousand made.

Posted: **Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:56 pm**

Doghouse,
That's the problem with any research done on serial numbers--the factories went to great length to hide production figures, for many reasons. Any attempt to find the truth, leads in circles-- I think Tom did the "best job" as he attempted to do it over at least ten years ( and "paid" for info, at one time). Unfortunate that his list has not been kept up, for a number of years now--Ron Rich

Posted: **Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:02 pm**

I just read this post.

Our Jukebox-World database does not list lowest and highest production number (yet).
It lists those numbers user posted already. This means it is not complete yet.
The heading of the table says "Serial number entered so far".

Tom did collect numbers for many years and it must have ben quite time consuming for him.
For model 443 he could get 13 numbers and gave the number range 420,867 to 428,939.
We collected 27 numbers until today. So far the known number range is 420,000 - 428,584.
This means at least that 420867 is neither the lowest 443 serial number nor 428584 the highest one.

The same we figured out with some other models. On some models we could collect lower or higher serial numbers than Tom.
The conclusion to me: No database is only right or wrong but combining both can give a good idea about lowest and highest number.
Especially since we can't ask most manufacturers anylonger - and if so they probably would not tell. :-)

Only NSM gave us a list about the production amount - but not the serial numbers belonging to it.

Everybody is welcome to enter serial numbers which aren't entered yet! The database is kept in English.
http://www.jbw-forum.de/sdb/

Kind regards - Hildegard

Posted: **Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:52 pm**

Thanks for the contribution Hildegard, I've now added my 442 to the Stamann database.

Thanks also for the help with my idler wheel!

Adam

Posted: **Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:18 pm**

Thank you Adam, great!

Hildegard

Phonoland

Rockola Serial Info

Rockola Serial Info

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