Old lighter, (zaibatsu), 09/13/2019

Old lighter, (zaibatsu), 09/13/2019
------------------------------------------------------------
Before my grandfather passed away he had me take some things
out of his house that he felt some of his grandchildren
might want. Among them were a few zippo lighters. No one
else wanted them, and I've always had a soft place for fire
and lighters (my dad smoked, I never did, but I did carry
around a zippo as a teen), so then ended up with me. I gave
the shiny/fancy one to my son (he loves making fires, fire
building, pyro-chemistry, etc), and I kept the beat up old
one for myself.

I got to thinking about if there was some way to identify
the age on these, and turned to the wider internet. Zippo
hosts a page for identification[1]. For convenience, I'll
replicate the info in ascii below this post.

The beat up older lighter turned out to be from 1968, while
the shiny newer lighter turned out to be from 1997. I got
the better lighter, obviously, because it's been places.
Probably just in my grandpa's pocket, and probably mostly in
Texas and Arizona, but still. I love old stuff, especially
old stuff with stories.

Zippo Logos
-----------
1933-1954 The word ZIPPO, all upper-case, simple
sans-serif type face

1955-1979 The word ZIPPO, all upper-case, calligraphic
Scripts type face with a distinct swosh on
the leading/top of the "Z" that seems to
imply a whisp of smoke

1980-2019 The word zippo, all lower-case, distinct
light serif font, the "z" and "i" are
connected, the dot on the "i" is a
pictogram of a flame, the curve on the two
"p" characters does not finish into a
complete circle

Zippo Date Markings
-------------------
1933 "Patent Pending"
1937-c1950 "Patent 2032695"
1942-1946 "Black Crackle, Patent 203695" (stamp error)
c1950-c1957 "Patent 2517191 with patent pending"
1958 "PatentPending"
**** ****
1959 **** ****
1960 *** ***
1961 *** **
1962 ** **
1963 ** *
1964 * *
1965 *
1966 |||| ||||
1967 |||| |||
1968 ||| |||
1969 ||| ||
1970 || ||
1971 || |
1972 | |
1973 |
1974 //// ////
1975 //// ///
1976 /// ///
1977 /// //
1978 // //
1979 / // or // /
1980 / /
1981 /
1982 \\\\ \\\\
1983 \\\\ \\\
1984 \\\ \\\
1985 \\\ \\
1986 \\ \\ or G to L ||
1987 A to L |||
1988 A to L IV
1989 A to L V
1990 A to L VI
1991 A to L VII
1992 A to L VIII
1993 A to L IX
1994 A to L X
1995 A to L XI
1996 A to L XII
1997 A to L XIII
1998 A to L XIV
1999 A to L XV
2000 A to L XVI
2001 A to L 01
etc.

[1] https://www.zippo.com/pages/date-codes