Strange mismatch of serial number on a FED1

Back in 2001 I bought a Fed 1 at a photographic auction (a physical auction, not online). It was noted in the catalog that there was a mismatch between the serial number and the model. Although it is a very early model of the Fed 1 it is a 1b and not a 1a as suggested by the serial (serial 2976) as can be seen in the picture. At the time I bought it to use and the shutter still works and there are no leaks in the curtain.

The question however is why it has been given the wrong serial. As far as I can tell it has not been altered after production. One explanation that I have been able to find is that if a camera came back as a warranty case to be repaired and it was considered too hard to repair they would simply pick another camera from the production line and give it the serial of the previous one but I’m not sure whether to believe this or not. Why go to the trouble of giving it the same serial and not send a new camera? I have however no clue as to the mismatch.

Any ideas?

Exchanging cameras and giving the substitute the number of the broken one is contradictory to the way (to my understanding) serial numbers are typically allocated to cameras.
The only explanation that basically makes sense to me is a upgrade.

The camera was made sometime in 1935-37 and not 1934-35 as the serial suggests. I'm not an expert on FEDs but from what I can see there is not really an upgrade to be done between the 1a and the 1b (could you get upgrades to Soviet cameras as you could Leicas?).
Giving the new camera the same identity as the old one may have saved some paperwork but I haven't a clue.

This is where Vodka comes into play with the soviet manufacturing process, the serial number was probably applied after lunch.

Well, just from reading all those Vodka comments here concerning soviet camera production one could get drunk.

By the way, soviet cameras were mainly assembled by women.

Maybe the last digit has never been engraved, so the real serial number is 2976x? If it were true, the number would then be consistent with the top plate engraving.

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/FED_(Original)_(_FED_NKVD,_FED-S,_FED-1)
It appears that the slant engraving came with the FED-1 type 2, 1935-. The link illustrates one with slant engraving no 6368.
Could the OP have an early one in this production run?

Jesper said:

a very early model of the Fed 1 it is a 1b and not a 1a as suggested by the serial (serial 2976)

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have you been in Saint-Peterburg? on one of the main avenue downtown, Nevsky prospekt, there's a big old russian style mall/bazar, Gostiny Dvor, and inside a small 2nd-hand film cameras and lenses shop. called Fotolubitel (foto lover/amateur). They have a website dual language ru/eng: https://photolubitel.com/
These guys are passionate about old cameras, I went many times there over the years.
Online on VKontakte, there are some dedicated film photography groups. One is called INFA ( История Наших Фото Аппаратов , history of our photo cameras....). Another group collects and digitalize old photograohic magazines. I have a bunch dating from pre-soviet days to the 80's.
I mean lot of literature available.

ok, so the folk of Fotolubitel worked out a small brochure for INFA in 2019/2020, about the discrepancy in the early FED serials.
The paper is titled "Hypothesis on discrepancy/mismatch in FED serial numbers" it has many pictures illustrating variations, oldest camera nr. 155.
it's in two chapters, first one about the first 6000 FEDs.
According to them the oldest know FED 1b with a 1a serial is the 2532:




Summary:
the very early FED were of various quality/reliability. Also all early FED lack accessory shoe. Rubber coating of curtains was not always good.
Users were journalists, diverse categories of technical professions, army.
When a camera was faulty or just in order to get upgraded with the accessory shoe when this was added later, it was send for repair, which could be rebuild/replacement and even cosmetically the chroming vs the sanding/brushing of very early models may have been an upgrade. But in order to keep the "passport" ie. the certificate, the serial number of the original buy was set on the replacement.
Another good reason for that was the bureaucracy had records, registers in all (state) companies about what equipment was where or attributed to who. So in order to keep the registers ok, it was simpler to put the old serial on a replacement or rebuild camera.

i have uploaded the pdf paper so you can read online or download:
https://disk.yandex.ru/i/QtP6nvVjWm0mCQ

antonio_b said:

But in order to keep the "passport" ie. the certificate, the serial number of the original buy was set on the replacement.
Another good reason for that was the bureaucracy had records, registers in all (state) companies about what equipment was where or attributed to who. So in order to keep the registers ok, it was simpler to put the old serial on a replacement or rebuild camera.

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But when the upgrade did not affect the top cover, the old number remained anyway. So this new-engraving only applied in those cases where the top cover had to be subsituted. This again means that the sevice department needed access to raw, ungalvanized covers, which then got the old number and then was sent into the production stream to get galvanized. Quite a hassle for as manufacturer it seems to me.
How was the latter case handled at western manufacturers?

AgX said:

But when the upgrade did not affect the top cover, the old number remained anyway. So this new-engraving only applied in those cases where the top cover had to be subsituted. This again means that the sevice department needed access to raw, ungalvanized covers, which then got the old number and then was sent into the production stream to get galvanized. Quite a hassle for as manufacturer it seems to me.

Click to expand...

you miss the importance of keeping registers with the "passport" number. These cameras were not consumer products but professional tools. Also in the 30th trudkommuna was a relatively small scale hand-crafting unit. This was a time when things like shoes were redone, soles replaced, etc. No mass production mechanized items yet.

I am not questioning the upgrade facilities as such, as another poster did, I even was the first to hint at an upgrade. I just wondered about the hassle involved in getting an old number on a new top cover.

But my question remains: How was such case of a serial-number bearing spare part handled at western manufacturers?

Thanks antonio_b, really a lot of information and very helpful even if I don't know russian. It seems that the camera that I have may have been born with 2976 after all and it must have had an interesting life. I'm surprised that it still works considering age and the not too good reputation for quality of early soviet manufacturing.

I've attached a picture taken with it. Clearly no coating but a nice character. The picture was taken not too long after buying the camera, spring of 2002. I stopped using it because it was too difficult to load and since then it has been stored in a drawer. Now I'm thinking about handing it back to the auction house where I bought it for them to sell but I was curious about what appeared to be a conflict between serial and model. Thanks again for the information antonio_b.