nvmos2 wrote:cp - I know.
Dave - I don't know how you do it; I guess all the advertising pays off. I don't think I've ever even seen a Jennings Witch, except in the books.
It's really unfortunate that it has been reproduced. How can you tell the difference on this model between original and repo? It looks like the Witch is basically a Victoria with the unique front casting. I suspect the fraudsters are taking Victorias and turning them into a Witch, in which case the machine would have the original serial number. Does anyone know what serial numbers were Victorias and which serials the Witches had? What a travesty to destroy the identity of a Victoria to create a fake! Who's doing this anyway?
I agree that it is really unfortunate that fakes are being made. I know the name of one person who is doing it but it is probably best that I don't publish it.
There are a couple way of identifying the fakes. Probably the easiest is to look at the serial number on the top casting. Jennings started the Witch line at 100,000 and they didn't make very many of them.
So, if the serial number on the top casting is not between 100,000 - 100,572 or if the serial number has been mucked with be very suspicious. The serial number on mine is 100056. Which means it was the 56th one made by Jennings. I would think the lower the number the better. This assumes the one in my serial number book that had a serial of 100546 was not a fake.
According to my serial number book, the highest serial number on a Witch is 100,546 and the lowest serial number on a Victoria (which is what people use to make the fake Witch machines) is 100,573. My serial number book has the following Witch machines listed, 100024, 100159, 100247, and 100546.
Victoria serial number go well over 110,000 which tells me that Jennings made over 10,000 Victoria machines. Given a 1% survival rate that puts 1,000 machines out there which could be made to a fake Witch.
So that tells me that Jennings made at most 572 Witch machines and given a 1% survival rate, that would mean about 5 or 6 originals are out there. That pretty much falls in line with the serial number book. It has 4 listed and now with mine that would make 5. Of course, there might be others out there that are not in the serial number book.
If you look at the sales history in the online price guide it is pretty obvious that people who are at auctions can tell the difference between the fakes and the originals. The price difference is huge. If people really think they can buy a legitimate Witch at a major auction for those low prices then they are nuts. The same thing goes with people who buy one from a dealer for a low price and they think they are getting an original at a great price. They should know better, why would a dealer sell a rare machine for thousands less than it is worth? Frankly, I am surprised the fakes bring as much as they do. Perhaps people are thinking they are getting a steal
