Jerry Treiman wondered on the "green board" under the switching topic, how common it was to see Howard dials with the serial number on the back side. Out of my collection there is only one, #37850, in the sixty some odd Howards, that I own or have owned over the years that is numbered. I have heard of a few other Howards with numbered dials.Since I do not post on the "green" board anymore because of a certain few individuals, I thought I would answer Jerry's question here. It appears to be written with a pencil after the fact but it is baked into the enamel. It has the number,date and the makers(?) initial. Notice the date, 14-4-74 is in the European style,day/month/year. The dial is nothing special and yes the number does match the movement.
Harold

Harold,

My experience with Howards has been somewhat different from yours. Suffice it to say, I don't have nearly as many as you do, but three of mine have the matching serial numbers of their movements on the back, in the same manner as yours above. They don't have the dates or maker's marks, but they do have the serial numbers (an image of them appears below).

Speaking of Howards and the guys on the "green board," as I'm sure you know, a few of those guys have posted a copy of the Howard serial number list, which they acquired from the Smithsonian, but they've posted it in such a way that it cannot be copied (at least, not by most average people).

Fortunately for me, I have a friend who's an Internet security specialist, and after "playing" with the Howard list for about five minutes, he DID make a copy of it, and subsequently provided me with a way to make it easily accessible to everyone. I've been thinking very seriously about posting a link here to the easily accessible version, but before I do, I'd like to know what others think about it.

According to my friend, someone went to a great deal of effort to "screw up" the code that makes the "E. Howard" serial number list so difficult to copy. I can't begin to guess why they did that, but I suppose they must have had their reasons.

For what it's worth, lists of "facts," such as serial numbers, etc., cannot be copyrighted.

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Steve Maddox
President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas
IHC Charter Member 49

Harold & Steve, thanks for your comments and observations. I waited, but I really did not expect the "mentors" to publicly share any of their knowledge.