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View additional information on vintage vs. modern pachinko machines.
Determining the Age of a Pachinko Machine
Where can I find the year of manufacture on the machines? You can't. The vintage machines were not stamped with a year of manufacture.
How can I tell how old my machine is? If your machine still has an expiration sticker, then you can use the table below to estimate the year of manufacture.
What is an expiration sticker? When pachinko machines were put into service, they were stamped with a sticker that has the date when the machine must be taken out of service. The time in service was probably 12 to 18 months.
Where is the sticker? It should be in one of the corners of the pachinko machine playfield. It may have fallen off or been taken off the machine. Below are some samples with an arrow pointing to the year.
Where is the year on the sticker? You may need a magnifying glass. On many stickers there will be lots of Japanese characters, then you will see two numbers some more Japanese characters, then one or two more numbers.
What do the numbers mean? The first two numbers are the Japanese year when the machine expires. The other number(s) is the month. See the chart below to translate this information into the Christian year of expiration and date of manufacture.
Conversion or Expiration Sticker to Year of Manufacture
| Japanese Year (expiration on sticker) |
Year of Manufacture (subtract 1 year from Christian Year) |
Christian Year (add 1925 to Japanese Year) |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 1979 | 1980 |
| 54 | 1978 | 1979 |
| 53 | 1977 | 1978 |
| 52 | 1976 | 1977 |
| 51 | 1975 | 1976 |
| 50 | 1974 | 1975 |
| 49 | 1973 | 1974 |
| 48 | 1972 | 1973 |
| 47 | 1971 | 1972 |
| 46 | 1970 | 1971 |
| 45 | 1969 | 1970 |