Differences in HP-65s

[Matthew Riehl]

Has anyone else noticed differences in HP-65s?  I was looking over my first one and one

recently acquired and noticed several differences.

These are the things that I noticed:

Older Calc:

Serial Number              1333A136XX

Serial # Tag Location      Inside of the battery compartment

Back label                 Shows "MADE IN U.S.A., PATENT PENDING, 3.75V 500mW" (like museum photo)

Label between bottom feet  Hewlett Packard name & voltage/mWatt info (like museum photo)

Yellow keyboard labels     Smaller than the painted on yellow "------- CLEAR -------" legend

Labeling above A -> E keys Larger with a more ivory color, same with OFF/ON and PRGM/RUN

                           labels, almost a painted-on appearance

Newer Calc:

Serial Number              1608S016XX

Serial # Tag Location      Between bottom feet

Back label                 Shows "MADE IN SINGAPORE BY HEWLETT PACKARD PATENT PENDING,

                           3.75V 500mW"

Label between bottom feet  Serial number tag

Yellow keyboard labels     Larger than the painted on yellow "------- CLEAR -------" legend

Labeling above A -> E keys Smaller a more delicate look to them.  Easier to see injection

                           molding lines.



My earlier one appears to look more like the one on this HP Museum site 

<http://www.hpmuseum.org/65.jpg>.  The later one can be seen at 

<http://members.aol.com/hpgene/hp65.GIF> and <http://www.vttoth.com/calcs/hp65.htm>.  The 

differences are obviously more apparent when the calculators are sitting side by side.

Would these differences be just due to the different manufacturing location or would they 

show some slight modification to the calculator (i.e. different verions)?  After studying the 

two, I can now recognize the two different tpyes even on  eBay ads.

I would be interested in hearing other peoples ideas on this.

Matt Riehl

[John Robinson]

I noticed there's a 65 on ebay at the moment with two serial numbers. My guess is that it's machine made of parts from both versions of the 65.