How much platinum is in a Singer sewing machine. What are they looking for in ZINGER cars? Mr. Singer, sewing machine and businessman

Since its invention, the sewing machine has always been a faithful assistant to every housewife who sewed clothes and other accessories with her own hands. Today, old sewing machines are popular among antiques collectors. If we consider models of such specimens, then the most popular among collectors is the old Singer sewing machine. Many are interested in the question of how much a Singer sewing machine costs and what its price may depend on.

A bit of history

The Singer sewing machine was first produced 160 years ago. Sewing equipment got its name from the name of the man who popularized (but did not create!) the sewing machine.

Antique Singer sewing machine

Isaac Merrit Singer was not the discoverer of the sewing machine, but he managed to significantly improve the equipment model developed by his predecessors - T. Saint, B. Timonier, E. Gow, J. Gibbs. Isaac Singer managed to establish a large-scale production and sale of sewing machines "Singer" ("Singer").

Determining the cost

How much can a Singer sewing machine cost? When answering this question, it should be noted that the cost of antiques depends on such factors:

• year of manufacture or serial number;
• condition - working or not.

Also, when evaluating the cost of a sewing machine, you should pay attention to its name. The thing is that popular sewing machines can be called both Singer and Zinger. The thing is that Singer cars are more common in comparison with Zinger (the latter are considered rare specimens, common in some European countries, as well as in Russia).

Many are interested in the question not only of how much a Singer sewing machine can cost, but also why it is considered so popular among antiques collectors. These machines are known to produce stitching that can rival the quality of modern sewing machines. In addition, for many years there was a version according to which some parts of the Singer machine were made of precious metals, for example, palladium. This concerned the drive shaft, because at first the rumor spread that it was made of palladium. However, there is still no confirmation of this information.

Antique buyers also appreciate the Singer typewriter because its design allows it to be successfully used as part of a retro-styled interior.

Estimating the cost of the machine consists of the following stages:

1. First of all, you should determine the year of manufacture of the machine. If one is not indicated, you should find a passport for equipment with a serial number, by which you can determine the year of manufacture of the sewing machine. The most valuable are those models that were released in the nineteenth century, namely in 1886. A Zinger hand sewing machine made over a hundred years ago and kept in perfect working order can cost up to $10,000! However, such specimens have survived in catastrophically small numbers. How much can a Singer machine cost? The answer is simple - it will be several times cheaper than Zinger. So, its cost will not exceed 500 dollars.
2. All items of antiques should be checked with a magnet. The thing is that such precious metals as gold, silver, palladium, platinum and copper are practically not magnetic. Therefore, if a certain working element of the machine does not react in any way to the magnet, then it is highly likely that it is made of precious metal. To confirm the authenticity of the metal, the machine should be given to an expert appraiser for verification. It is the specialist who will help determine the value of the rarity.

To find out how much a Singer sewing machine can cost, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with similar ads for the purchase / sale of rare sewing machines. The collection of such information will allow you to approximately determine the cost of the machine.

Everyone remembers the dedication of Vladimir Mayakovsky: "To Comrade Netta, the ship and the man." In the same way, for everyday consciousness, an old sewing machine and its creator, Isaac Singer, "merged" in the name Singer. Moreover, the exquisite vintage technique over time pushed the portrait of the owner of the production into the background.

The highest reliability of all structural units allows, even after more than a century, to give out the perfect line, working with any materials - from the finest fabrics to The owner’s interest in how to determine the year of manufacture of a sewing

Mr. Singer, sewing machine and businessman

The accuracy and punctuality of the manufacturer of equipment will help us when, armed with patience and turning to the help of a universal modern friend - the Internet, we determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine. How, you ask? Very simple! "All moves are written down," as one notorious literary hero used to say. Detailed "talmuds" from black seamstress beauties were neatly stored in the accounting departments of the Singer company, and then, in an abbreviated form, were transferred to the Web for all curious owners, collectors and hunters of old sewing equipment.

Of all the register journals, only documents dated from 1851 (the year the famous typewriter was first produced) to 1870 turned out to be inaccessible to analysts. Such scrupulous detailing of documents for the past century and a half does honor to any production! Therefore, let's say "thank you" to the talented inventor and his successors for the opportunity to satisfy the thirst for knowledge on the question: "How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?"

Amazing production volumes

From the information provided, we can learn, for example, that already at the beginning of 1871 the serial number of sewing equipment leaving the assembly line was 611,000, at the beginning of the next year - 914,000, in 1973 - 964,000 and so on. As you can see, the demand for cars was not the same in different periods, and the circulation of their release changed from year to year, was not a constant value.

The millionth Singer saw the light already in 1873, the two millionth copy belongs to the end of 1875, the ten millionth was produced in 1891. 1899, the penultimate year of the century, ended at 16,831,099.

Singer branches

In addition to solving the question: “How to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine?”, With it is possible to establish, thanks to the letter marking, the place where this or that mechanism was produced.

The letters M, P correspond to production in Scotland, N - in American New Jersey (Elizabeth city). Since 1904, the marking B has been added for the American factory (a little more than one and a half million sewing machines were produced under it).

Of interest to us are the numbers of Russian-made equipment that appeared in 1906 in Podolsk, starting with the letter S, T (from 1908 it was replaced by the letter E, from 1911 - A). In addition to Podolsk, Singer branches existed in Prussian Witenberg, as well as in (the city of Bridgeport).

It is obvious that, for example, a 1904 Singer sewing machine can only be foreign-made, most likely American. The Singer Manufacturing Company (which existed since 1863) was present on the Russian market five years after the abolition of serfdom. The high cost of shipping equipment from overseas prompted thirty-five years later to establish production in Podolsk. Construction began in 1900, but initially, from 1902, the plant prepared only individual spare parts for family sewing machines.

Letter doubling

In the 20s of the 20th century, mass production prompted the labeling of products with numbers preceded by a two-letter code. Factories have been built in Colombian Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Quebec Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. The nearest production facilities to Russia were located in the German Karsruhe, the Italian city of Monza, the French Bonnieres, in Istanbul, Pakistan.

In the USA, another plant opens in South Carolina (Anderson) during this period, in addition to the traditional production in New Jersey.

The history of the Russian "Singer"

Until the revolution of 1917, the engineer Walter Frank Dixon, who built it, remained the director of the enterprise built in Podolsk. In 1913, with which it is customary to compare all the successes of Soviet construction, the daily production of sewing machines amounted to 2,500 per day, over 600,000 per year. The company enjoyed all the preferences of the Supplier of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Its turnover increased seven times against the original, 3,000 branded stores were opened throughout Russia, the total staff of which exceeded 20,000 people. Products that were not inferior in quality to foreign ones were provided to the domestic buyer on an installment plan. That is why the Singer sewing machine is still found in almost every family.

The Podolsky plant in the early years of Soviet power produced small consumer goods - cast irons, coal-fired irons, openers and frying pans. Later, it was again transformed into the only enterprise in the Union that produced Podolsk sewing machines, and in 1994 returned to the bosom of the Singer company. Production efficiency is supported by cooperation with "Semi-Tech".

Myths and the true story of "Singer"

The problem, which consists in how to determine the year of manufacture of the Singer sewing machine, has not only an altruistic-historical aspect, but also a noticeable "treasure-hunting tint". There is a myth that individual parts of the mechanism (in particular the shaft) were created by designers from rare valuable metals (palladium and the like).

Possessing such an enviable rarity, apparently of family value, do not trust people who are suitable to "examine" it with a magnet in their hands in the expectation that the non-ferrous materials of the sewing machine will not show the properties of attraction.

Metals other than iron are present mainly in the frame of a limited edition foot sewing machine produced in the mid-30s. The high molybdenum content makes them somewhat more valuable "scrap".

The propensity for sensationalism, characteristic of a society in a state of unrest, led to the publication in the domestic press of another false information that some serial numbers of Singer sewing machines, lost precisely in Russia, promise their owners a prize of $ 1 million. It seems that it makes no sense to debunk such children's fables.

The truth is that in the merchant environment of our pre-revolutionary Fatherland, the idea matured to produce under the same brand of their own, much lower quality counterfeit, the speed of which and the reliability of the nodes left much to be desired. A sign of a genuine "Singer" is an oval copper plate with the inscription "Tne Singer Manfg Co" placed on the frame. An individual number that begins with a letter of the Latin alphabet should be looked for on the board.

It is worth checking the performance of your sewing machine by calling the master to adjust the mechanisms. After all, even the inventor Isaac Singer himself once spent a whole day "fighting" over the first, newly assembled brainchild, trying to get a perfectly even line. It turned out that the engineer, due to fatigue, simply forgot to adjust the tension of the upper thread. Perhaps bringing your rarity to working order is also worth the most minimal effort!

Sewing machine Zinger (Singer, Singer, Singer) - Antique?

If antiques, then who is willing to buy or sell Singer sewing machine(Zinger, Singer, Singer)? What antique value does it represent, how much does it cost, what is the price depending on the year of issue, and is there such a dependence? What is the difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer), which sewing machines are valued more, foot or manual? What myths about mysterious shafts and shuttles made of precious metals hover around a famous brand?

In chapter antiques- Sale, on antique forums, these questions are regularly asked, reviews and answers are very different. Let's dot all the points.

Isaac Merritt Singer - a reveler, a womanizer and a slacker (the biography of a genius is a separate story, I will post the details at my leisure, stay tuned), founded The Singer Manufacturing Company in the USA. He was forced to take up the improvement of the sewing machine by a debt that he was obliged to repay in 11 days. This is how the Singer was born. And he himself always liked to repeat: “For me, an invention is not worth a penny. Pennies - that's what interests me.

The talent turned out to be the ancestor of franchising - his cars were produced all over the world. Accordingly, the surname of the designer and the owner of the trademark was written in different languages. The surname Singer is written in different languages ​​​​through both “S” and “Z”. Option Zinger sewing machine produced in Germany (a subsidiary of an American company).

This is the answer to the question - is there a difference Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer).

After the collapse of the USSR, these machines were massively bought up by the owners of underground workshops for sewing leather goods, in the style of Italy or Turkey, for simple reasons:

The Singer sewing machine easily coped and made a flawless stitch even on very thick leather,

Tritely worked without electricity, which made it possible to make production highly profitable, low-cost and practically uncomputable.

It was all in the 90s, now underground workshops have gone into oblivion, and new generation sewing machines have appeared.

Then, in the early 90s, when everything containing at least a drop of precious metals was stolen from everywhere, and was born, and then inflated to unimaginable proportions, the Myth of values ​​​​of sewing machines Zinger - Singer (Singer - Singer): first to S, then to Z, then with certain numbers. It was said at first that the drive shaft was made of platinum (palladium) to prevent corrosion, then that it was not made, but only covered, that the shuttles in some sewing machines until 1930 were made of platinum, gold and even palladium.

It is enough to know at least a little of the character of a German to laugh heartily at such fantasies.

However, the Internet is literally littered, and the entrances are regularly full of messages of the following order: “I will buy a Singer sewing machine (Zinger - Singer - Singer)”, “ready to buy a Singer sewing machine”, “Urgently buy a Zinger sewing machine”, etc. What's the matter?

And this is just a new kind of amazingly played fraud.

A seemingly harmless advertisement for the purchase of such a sewing machine for very decent money:

“If you want to sell your Zinger sewing machine, look carefully at the name to see if it's called Singer. These are completely different machines. Carefully inspect the entire machine with a magnet, excluding, of course, places made of cast iron. Turn the machine over, you can see the white shafts, examine them. The magnet should react weakly or not at all. The smaller the reaction, the higher the cost of this machine. The exact cost of the machine can be found out only after the spectral analysis of the metal. The shafts of the Zinger machine contain palladium."

That same shaft, do you think it could be made of palladium?

BUT! since it is not known exactly until what specific year the shafts were platinum, you will be offered to drill the shaft in two places and send the chips for analysis in a letter, at the same time pay the cost of reagents (300-500 rubles). You will no longer see your money, and no one will buy a car from you.

There is also a legend that, with the advent of Soviet power, the inhabitants of the mountainous regions melted down their gold into the beds of sewing machines. Assuming that this may be true, we will consider each individual instance even more carefully)))

1890, nothing has changed)))

Completely upset? Don't worry, your Singer sewing machine still for sale, provided that it has been preserved in perfect condition, with a chic bed and ideally with documents, rubles for 500 pickup. The cars themselves as antiques or collectibles are not interesting, they take up a lot of space, they are not very interior and are not in demand by collectors at all. Slightly more valued are machines from small batches of rare models and if your sewing machine was released in the area of ​​​​the year the Singer company was founded.

An interesting fact: the name "Popovka" comes from the name of Popov's trading house, which was engaged in the distribution and sales of sewing machines in Russia.

famous sewing machine Zinger (or Singer)- already a treasure in itself, because it is very reliable and durable, even if not antiques, even if neither platinum, nor palladium, nor gold were used in the details of its mechanism. There are no valuable metals in it, you can not spoil it, but you can work on it and earn a living. Again, memory and flight of fancy.

From beautiful openwork cast legs-stands you can make a stunning interior masterpiece! This is what designers use with success, turning the cast-iron frame of the Singer sewing machine into amazing tables, adding glass, wooden or mosaic tabletops.

The "terrible" secret of the Singer sewing machine.

Part 3. Sawing, Shura, sawing. They are gold...

Rumors about the fabulous high cost of antique Singers are due to myths-legends that can neither be confirmed nor refuted.

You can only check for your own typewriter;)

Legend number 1. Platinum part (most often the shaft acts as such). Given that the weight of the shaft is about 2 kilograms, the cost of a machine with such a shaft will be around 45 thousand USD. The narrators refer to the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, platinum was not yet considered a precious metal and cost much less, than now. The wear resistance of this metal is good, so the manufacturers produced a batch of machines with such a detail, and this batch went abroad. There is even a version that the serial numbers of such units are known, and the risk of buying the “wrong” machine for those in the know is reduced to a minimum. Sometimes in this legend, platinum is replaced by palladium. To check, it is advised to use a magnet. If it is not attracted to the shaft, then the shaft is not cast iron, but from a “suspicious” metal. They also advise you to take a closer look at the plaque-emblem "Singer". On "platinum" cars, this emblem is made in the form of a plaque. On other copies, it is embossed on the case or drawn.

Legend number 2. It is said that during the war the Nazis hid a lot of gold and valuables in a Swiss bank. And the access code and cell details are allegedly stamped on the shaft of the Singer machine. Unfortunately, this information cannot be verified by the owners of the machine.

Legend number 3. During the October Revolution of 1917, the frames of the machines were poured out of gold and painted black. Thus, the nobles and the bourgeois stratum managed to take gold out of the country, deceiving the vigilant red commissars. A modified legend says that in this way gold was exported from Nazi Germany (when Hitler came to power, the export of valuable metals was banned from the country). By the way, gold is also not magnetic;)

Legend #4 . "Palladium" cars exist, but they are associated with a scam to export valuable metal from the country by bureaucrats and the party elite in 1992-2002.

Legend number 5. In fact, the high cost of cars is associated with the scams of officials for the return and laundering of VAT. Several "solid" companies were created abroad, buying old Singer cars for big money. True, they did not buy these machines from everyone. The reason for the refusal of "foreign" sellers lurked either in the mythical letter "Z", or in the mismatch of the serial number with the right one, or in the lack of money at the moment. From "their" such machines were bought without problems. And at the end of the year, the Russian government paid (read "returned") to foreign buyers VAT in the amount of 18% of the purchase amount.

Legend No. 6 . Truly a legend. In Saudi Arabia in 2009, there was a boom in the search for Singers, their purchase and sale, and even theft, as a rumor spread that the needles of old Singers contained a terrible substance - red mercury. Such a needle can cost, allegedly, 2-3 million USD. And red mercury is used either to search for ancient treasures, or to build heavy-duty bombs. And the presence of red mercury in cars was advised to check using ... a mobile phone signal. In the presence of this most valuable substance, the signal should have completely disappeared.

Legend number 7. More of a scam than a legend. There is an opinion that the rumor about precious metals in the Singers was started by scammers in order to:
1. Buy cars for little money, spread information about the high value of the units via word of mouth, sell devices for a good amount.
2. Buy cheap antiques. Under the guise that your machine is "not the one." But they can buy it. But for a price much lower than previously indicated. At the same time, the purchase price of an antique gizmo is imposed much lower than the real market price.
3. Analyze the components and parts of your machine for the presence of precious metals. This event is not cheap. As a result, the crooks receive money for chemical analysis and, again, offer the owner, disappointed in the availability of platinum, to buy his antique "junk" for a penny.