Earliest 12C Serial Number

[mark3030]

I've been trying to do as much research on my own before I came here but there isn't much to find.

I may have one of the oldest if not the oldest fully functioning 12C in circulation. Short background. Dad was in finance first with American Airlines then B of A. This was back in mid 70's in San Francisco of all places. So numbers has been a major part of his life and that means I grew up with HP calculators. So my dad just gave me his 12C. He's fairly old so its one of those things. I used this site to figure out how to read the serial number and I knew this calc was old but not this old.

The serial number is 2031A01509. That means 1980, 31st week, America, #1509. Don't know what number they started on. But all things assumed, the 2013 date is the earliest anyone has found and most likely is the very first week they began production. And of course it was made in America. And at worst it was the 1509th HP 12C ever made. If they started the number at 1000 it would be the 509th ever made. I don't know how many were made that year but 1509 out of milllions and millions makes it pretty old. And the real question is, how many of the 1508 before it still exist and work 100%. Can't be that many. Oh yeah, I also have the original leather case.

That begs two questions. Do I have in my possession the oldest fully functioning HP 12C with original leather case ever made? And second, does it mean anything? Big deal or not, worth $1 million or $1 its still pretty cool that it might be true.

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