I just received a Philadelphia 20 year case that looks like the 20 years ran out about 80 years ago. It has a lot of brass showing. the seller stated that the case was in good condition (he must be a comedian). The front cover will not hardly screw on or off and I have cleaned it but that is alright.

I got the case with a old style Hamilton 975 that takes the special stem. I knew this when I bid in order to have a working example so I can make more stems.

I will clean it up and I will but my old style 972 in it and I will not have to open the front anymore.

Now for the back. I was checking the rear cover numbers to the frame because the badly worn rear cover would not line up when screwed into place. I noticed the last two numbers "08" and been stamped over with a "11"? I checked the frame and the last two numbers were "11". I cleaned the rear cover and the frame and the numbers match and the design lines up now.

Is this a common practice? It appears to be down at the factory as all the re-stamped numbers go together and everything lines up and the original number was only 3 digits away from the re-stamped number. Ant thoughts?

Number