Got some serial number pics from
@rennfaron of a pair of his and hers black New Worlds he owns. It got a few of us thinking about the odd hand stamping we've seen on the 1940 three piece crank New Worlds. Specifically,
@vincev 's men's maroon bike is a 1940 three piece crank New World but it has an "I" serial number that does not fit for this year. Here's the pic we have for
@vincev 's BB:
View attachment 1101814
We have it listed as I5384.
With the exception of the white 1939-40 NW Racer, that
@rennfaron now possesses
, all the 3 piece crank versions with 4 digit serial numbers start with D. Here are some other examples:
Big Moe D5440
View attachment 1101818
rennfaron's black New Worlds w 3 piece cranks:
View attachment 1101819
View attachment 1101820
Not as easy to read, but 1motime's 1940 NW D4607
View attachment 1101821
The thing that sticks out is that the "D" stamp does not look right. It is smaller than the digits and looks like it is made from two stamps struck on top of one another. Is it an "I" with an "O" combined with it, or a backwards "C"??? It's especially clear on the black frames above.
Here's a close up of Big Moe's combo stuck "D":
View attachment 1101822 I see an "O" with an "I" on top of it. It isn't lined up very well so you can see the two different letters. Same with renn's black serials. To me it looks like they are trying to make a D using two other stamps like this:
View attachment 1101823
@vincev I imagine your 1940 New World is not right at your fingertips.
When the weather is good again or you get a wild hair, is there any chance you could take another look at your 3 piece crank BB and see if there is any evidence of a light "O" stamp hiding with the "I" too? It sure would make a lot more sense if your 1940 four digit serial numbered bike with 3 piece crank started with one of these I/O combo "D"s instead of an I.
It's also interesting to note that the other bikes built this year that were tourist bikes (1 piece cranks) were built using a different frame on what appears to be a different line. The smaller BB used with the 3 piece cranks on these frames was not serialized using the machine stamper for the tourist frames. The machine stamped tourist bike frames also start with the letter "D" but they are followed with 5 number digits and the D is a normal letter D stamp.
Here's the chart with the 1940 serial data for comparison.
@vincev 's bike is really out of place with it's I serial in 1940.
I haven't added
@rennfaron 's black D serial bikes yet...
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