Black lettering - gold lettering

[tomrsey]

I have two Hampden Special Railways, that look pretty much alike except for the color of the lettering. One is gold, the other black. How common is that in this and other models, and is that considered a variation in grade, or just from a different run?

[Fred Hansen]

This type of difference in letter coloring is sometimes considered a variant for certain grades of Illinois Watch Co. production such as the 16 size Sangamo Special model 8 and 9, the 16 size 23 jewel model 9 Bunn Special, the 18 size 19 jewel Bunn, and a few others.

As an Illinois collector I've always considered this a less important of impressive distinction between two watches than a variation of damaskeen, movement marking, or mechanical feature. But for the collector that is looking to complete a set of a particular grade it does give another spot in the collection to fill.

Letter coloring is of course not hard to make changes to, but at least among the Illinois production the coloring can usually be backed up by the movement serial number as the different colors are usually found in known serial ranges and an inappropriate color to serial number would be suspect.

Fred

[HenryB]

Honestly I have not paid that much attention to the letter coloring on the Special Railway Hampden's, so I just do not know how common it was.

As far as a different variation, I am not aware of any documentation to support this.

I suspect the Black colored lettering is the more uncommon, but again this is speculation on my part.