Looking a Gift Typewriter in the Mouth

I now have a handful of 5-series Smith-Coronae, they're solid, reliable machines that're straight forward to work on and also work well as threshing machines for the uninitiated public to use during Type-Ins. I'd say they're my favorite brand for just that use. I also like how if you have one with a JJ Short-resurfaced platen you can easily swap it to another 5-series machine, which I've done here, including swapping the righthand platen knobs, just to keep the colors consistent; I anticipate using this machine more in the near future than the Silent-Super ex-hippie typer that I otherwise love (just because of the letter-writing potential of vertical script).

This month I've added five (!) machines to my collection. Surprisingly, my ever-patient wife isn't even upset, as she's taken more of an active interest in our fledgling typewriter group and sees these extra machines as ones that can be used for public Type-In events, saving the wear and tear on my more rare or fragile pieces. Having an understanding partner makes being a typewriter nerd so much better. In fact, it's worth swapping one, maybe two, Hermes 3000s for a good spouse, you won't regret it! (JK). I'll be making blog articles about the other machines soon (I've already covered the Singer Graduate here).

One final thought about this vertical script Silent is I don't think it got much use during its life, considering a script machine might only get used for personal letters, it's not the kind of type face you'd use to turn in an essay, for example.

Also, here's much more detailed info about the backstory to this type face, thanks to our friend Ted Munk.