Singer Identification

Identifying Singer Machines and their Serial numbers

Singer Quick Reference
Factory designation and model numbers

You may have noticed a letter at the within or at the end of the model name, such as 15-1, 15K88, 66K, 201P, etc. The letter indicates where the machine was either manufactured or assembled. The number preceding the factory indicator is the base model, the number at the end is the submodel. It is vitally important to know that while many models were essentially the same regardless of the factory they were manufactured, some were factory specific.

This is a list of Singer factories around the world with their letter designations

The following factories may or may not have a letter designation:

Floridsdorf, Austria (Est 1882, nothing else known)
Podolsk, Russia (Later under USSR Podolsk Engineering Plant - PMZ)
Bogota, Colombia
Santiago, Chile
Lima, Peru
Taytay, Philippines
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Karachi, Pakistan

Singer Serial Numbers

All vintage Singer sewing machines will have a serial number stamped into the body of the machine. The position of the serial number is often dependant on the model and sometimes the era in which it is made, but the most common placement is on the top of the bed in front of the pillar.

No prefix, 1851 to 1899. The following numbers are based on production figures for Singer sewing machines in all their factories, so allowances should me made for a margin of error. There are no known detailed lists for Singer sewing machine production prior to 1900.

At the beginning of the 20th century Singer began allocating seperate serial number prefixes to their various factories

While many records were lost, the records for the Elizabethport and Kilbowie factory were preserved and tranferred to PDF and for some years were available on Singer websites, although they have since been removed from public access. I have copies of the files preserved to my hard drive, but for HTML versions I recommend the ones posted to ISMACS

Serial number prefix for Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA (Elizabethport)

Serial number prefix for Clydebank, Scotland, Great Britain (Kilbowie)

Wittenberge factory, Prussia, Germany

A - Podolsk, Russia
C - Wittenberge, (Prussia) Germany
E - Podolsk, Russia
S*- Podolsk, Russia (*100 "S" machines made in Podolsk)
T - Podolsk, Russia
W - Bridgeport, Connecticut USA
CA to CY - Bogota, Colombia
DA to DY - Karachi, Pakistan
HA to HY - Istanbul, Turkey
JA to JE - Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada (St Johns)
KA to KY -Buenos Aires, Argentina
LA to LY - Taytay, Philippines
NL - Taichung, Taiwan
SA, SB, etc - Bonnieres, France
PA etc - Karlsruhe, Germany (formerly Haid & Neu) 1954
TA etc - Utsunomiya, Japan (formerly Pine)
VA, VB, etc - Penrith , Australia 1959 to 1967