Font I.D?

[padams8888]

Hey all. This magazine is installed on my NA M21 sks. Does this font line up with Sino Soviet ones? Down turned 7 and blocked 1. Just curious....thanks!

[running-man]

Yes I would say this is a magazine off a type 56 Ghost. 

Reason #1: 6 digit s/n which is very seldom (if never, I can't recall one off the top of my head in fact) seen on carbines after year 6.
Reason #2: Jives fairly well with magazines from sister guns.  The 1 has perhaps a bit more serif, but even among my examples the 1's vary a bit:






Would love to see the full suite when you get ger cleaned up.  Not many catalogued M21 NA's out there at all! 

[Boris Badinov]

I think it could also be a 7-digit 1957 or a 1958.

Here is my 1958 ser# 3197171

[running-man]

Ahh good catch Boris, I totally forgot about the 3 mils!  It can't be a 2 mil as the 2 mils don't start that low only starting at ~2,369,000 (being that they are a continuation of six digit /26\s).

You are probably right as that 1 matches much better with Pat's font.

Here are a few other sisters from the 3 mil /26\ grouping:

[Boris Badinov]

Oh, yeah. I forgot about the serial range limits on the 1957 carbines.


Could it also be from a later production year? I'm not up on all the nuances of early serial fonts, but I think they used the same (or very similar) font until about year 9 or 10.

[running-man]

Though the font may be similar with later year carbines, the six digit S/N on components in combination with that font is unique to the ghost, six digit, year 2, and year 3 /26\’s only (as far as I’ve seen). Five digit component numbers pretty much dominate the rest of the /26\ run and the other arsenals all have their own quirky conventions.