Royal 300 » Early Black Royal 300

Early Black Royal 300
R300Y 404.JPG

Zenith Model Number: R300Y

Serial Number: 304,053

Production Date: September, 1957

Chassis: 7AT42Z1

Gary’s ID: #404

Note the wording “Seven Transistors” on the faceplate. This is only found on the earliest 300’s. It was soon changed to read “All Transistor”.

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2 Responses to “Early Black Royal 300”

  1. Steve Harris Says:
    November 28th, 2010 at 12:57 am

    Gary: nice looking Royal 300 in black. I have never seen one before in this color. Must be sort of rare. Is there any way to tell the production date of the Zenith transister radios by looking at the insides ? Thanks Much

  2. Gary Says:
    November 29th, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    Hi Steve, there are clues inside and sometimes outside too. On the outside, the “Seven Transistor” faceplate would indicate an early 300 while most will have “All Transistor” on the front. On the inside, the serial # located in the cutout of the battery direction plate on the post between the batteries is sequential and will help date it if you know when they started making them. But the best way is to look at the coding on the tuning capacitor. A code of 735 will indicate the 35th week of 1957. Sometimes there are other components that will have a similar format of date code, but the tuner is the most reliable place to look. Hope this helps. Gary

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