| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Apple IIe 1601.png | 1.07 MB |
| Apple IIe 9761.png | 651.6 KB |
| Apple IIe 76667.png | 1.14 MB |
| Apple IIe late.png | 346.13 KB |
When the first Apple IIe systems shipped in January 1983, the sticker on the bottom displayed an A2S2-XXXX serial number just like the Apple II Plus. The typeset of the serial number looked just like the early Apple II & II Plus numbers (see S/N 1601 below...this is Mike Maginnis' system). It seems that soon after its introduction, a "1" was printed in front so it now read 1A2S2, presumably to avoid confusion with II Plus, and the number itself was printed in much larger, blockier text (see S/N 9761). Following that, the label was changed so that the extra "1" was now part of the label, but the serial numbers were still sequential (S/N 76667). Finally, I guess since production was ramped up to such high volume, the numbers switched over to a date code (last image).
I wonder when Apple made the switches along the way? Interestingly, I have a system with the "1st state" label in the 11,000s so that means when they switched to the 2nd state (with the amended 1A2S2 designation and blockier digits) they may have the reset the numbering back to the start as well.
Any insights?
Howie
Hi Howie,
I have a ][e with the 1601.png, First State label. My serial No. is 09219
Don't know if that helps find a change point.
-Mark
While the labels will change with time they also change with factory (as is true with all components) and serial numbers are a bit tricky because there was concurrent builds happening at multiple locations.
In the same week you could have two different systems being built and that includes things from a single component (like the label) or board version you could have a earlier board with a later serial number. You could even have older board number (the 820-NNNNNN-L) on a later assembly number (607-NNNNN-L). You can even find systems built the same in different weeks with the later system build having an lower serial number ((1)A2S2-??????) than the one built after. Production is really chaos and anything goes, don't bother trying to read anythign into these differences, they're basically just arbitrary numbers sometimes sequential but that just means systems just came off the same line one after the other.