Izhevsk receiver S/N fonts

[running-man]

I know I'm not the first one to notice that Izhevsks have vastly different fronts than their Tula brethren (I'm sure many of the more experienced Russian SKS collectors have seen and commented on this trait before).  I thought It would be neat to see what I could pull from the S/N and photo database I've collected thus-far (800+ guns in total) and see what we can see.  I basically have taken a screen grab of each numeral three different times from the various *known* Izhevsk receiver S/N'd guns in the database.  From what I can tell, '53 and '54 have identical fonts (though my '53 database is so small that I don't have a full set of numerals to truly compare to the more numerous '54s.

Anyhow, here's what I've come up with:

0's:


1's:


2's:


3's:


4"s:


5's:


6's:


7's:


8"s:


9's:


I suspect the 6's and 9's on the Izhevsks are the same stamp, just flipped 180°.  I'll see if I can do the same for Tulas soon and we can compare them side by side.  I know the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 are very noticeably different.  5, 6, 8, and 9 I'm not super certain about, but I do know the aspect ratio on Izhevsk guns is much wider than what is seen on the Tulas.

[Dannyboy53]

Fascinating stuff running-man, thanks for all the time you put into this.

[CARBINE]

Perfect. Nice job.

[running-man]

Just captured these this morning.  Unfortunately the images of the '49s are few and far between and not of great resolution.  I did see some variations on the 1's, but the single line with no serifs seems to be the most common.

1949 Tula Receiver:

[Loose}{Cannon]

Looking forward to the side/side.   

[running-man]

1950 Tula Receiver:

[running-man]

1951 Tula Receiver.  Much better resolution and many more examples than the 49's and 50's:

[CARBINE]

I see the 4's are very different tulas have 4<------this part of the four extended out past and the Izhevsk do not

[Dannyboy53]

The serial numbers on my Russian have all the characteristics of the Tula numbers and none of the Izhevsk. I haven't noticed this difference in numbers before now, danged good catch running-man!

I'm wondering why the facilities PAINTED the barrels & gas tubes and BBQ'ed the receiver & cover as mine has been done?