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Please besure to read the description as the payphone is sold as shown anddescribed; and if you have any questions please call us at Phoneco[phone removed by ]. No returns. We are not responsible for your mistakefor not reading our description. Sold as shown in the photographs,please see photos for best description of cosmetic condition andstyle.
Shipping applies to the lower 48 States, please send an email if you have questions or to request shipping charges for International shipping, and shipping toAlaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico which will cost extra as determined by weight and size.
This item will ship on the following Wednesday or Thursday after offer close and payment is received.
1940 – 1949 Working Western Electric 3-Slot Payphone #182 stamped in red on the backboard.
Non-handsetphones are called “2-pc” (2 piece) because the receiver isseparate from the transmitter and not combined into one piece. Theonly difference between each 2-pc phone is 1: whether it\'s chrome ornot, 2: whether it\'s dial or non-dial, and 3: what it says on thefront (Gray Pay, Gray Mfg or Gray-Western Electric). Allthe older phones are working. They do not require coin, they neverput ringers in them.
“Two Piece” telephones phased out largely after WWII. It is said that Bell ended their manufacture in 1940 but Gray continued tooffer them (see pages 176-185 in Phoneco’s “Payphone History”). I’m offering all my old phones for sale as I want to cease dealing with them. Due to the absence of a chart, an attempt here will be to show new manufactures and conversions. The 180 series was new manufacture in 1940. 181s were converted to and given new numbers such as 191 in 1949, 193 and 198 in 1950. 196 in 1953. The 1949 191 (which was converted from a 181) were converted to a 200 in 1957. The 197 (which were converted from 191 plusa new mfg), was converted to a 223 and 233 in 1957. The 200 was converted to a 203 which was converted to a 210 in 1957 and 1960.
Iwant no-longer to be a wheeler-dealer in old telephones; nowpreferring to sell out and to enter the realm of retirees even thoughI am young, having been born in 1935. In the 1980\'s I handledthousands of old payphones, most of which were 1950s-1972s.Comparably, very few were from the teens to the late 1940s. Recently, I was asked: What would be the best investment in handsetphone? I\'ll answer this charitably in a sharing manner (not as acapitalist or entrepreneur). Answer: 1940. This was not the firstpayphone with a handset, but like Bell is considered the inventor,the 1940 W.E. #180 series is labeled the first (probably highproduction) handset payphone. Whether you buy this one or one likeit from anyone, here are some \"tips\". If both the top-frontand the backboard are both marked with a #181, 182 or 183, and thebottom housing has an open slot with a name-plate above the doorsaying: \"coin return\" it then is a true 180-series.Regardless of any stampings what so ever or, if there is/are nonumber/s anywhere such as 181,182,or 183, 191, 193 or 195. Look forthe following clues: the backboard is quite heavy cast iron. The tophousing should have a \"daisy-dial\" shroud that is of thinsteel (not the thick cast (\"pot metal\" as on the200-series) with nuts shown visually on studs which hold the dialface-plate in place. A 191 may have the same credentials. I\'venever refused to discuss these things with someone who is confrontedwith a decision while standing in an antique shop looking at apayphone.
