Apple's first computer "Apple-1", the mystery of 45 years is finally unraveled

The person who wrote the serial number on the board of "Apple-1", a long-standing mystery of Apple enthusiasts, was that man ...

About 45 years ago, in July 1976, Apple's first microcomputer, the Apple-1, was launched in 200 units. Eighty-two of them still exist, and about 80 of the first 100 have handwritten serial numbers engraved on the main board (the serial numbers are "01-00 ##"). And of the 80 units with handwritten serial numbers, dozens of them still exist. Who wrote these serial numbers? Has remained an unsolved mystery among some Apple enthusiasts for many years, but has never been revealed by Apple officials. However, this mystery was finally unraveled as described in the 9to5Mac article.

Ask a handwriting appraisal company to investigate

In addition, if you talk about the history so far, it is said that Wozniak said "I am not myself" and Jobs also said "I am not myself", and I am in charge of assembling and testing the board. Daniel Kotke also denied, and all board makers insisted on innocence. The prevailing theory was that it was the work of Byte Shop, which bought the first 50 Apple-1 computers, but owner Paul Terrell also said he wasn't.

Then who wrote this serial number ...!?

To unravel the mystery, Akim Pake (curator of the Apple-1 registry) flew from Germany to Los Angeles with two Apple-1s ... And he entrusted it to PSA, a handwriting appraisal company that mainly handles sports cards.

PSA, along with these rare and valuable computers, collects photos of all handwritten numbers on Apple-1 computers and various other handwriting samples, including tilt, flow, pressure, font size, and more. We have identified and evaluated the characteristics of. After three months of research and verification, the mystery has finally been unraveled. As a result, how ...!?

It was Jobs who wrote the serial number

It was revealed that this serial number was written by Apple co-founder Jobs. It was the work of Jobs himself ...! However, it remains a mystery why he wrote this number by hand. Because there is no one himself ... Jobs said he didn't write, maybe he just forgot.

The Apple-1 Registry contains a PSA-signed certificate letter, which you can check in full.

And this link has a picture of the board that says "01-0600", which says: "Steve Jobs hasn't signed the board, but all the letters are written by his hands."

It seems that the rare value of Apple-1 with a serial number will increase more and more depending on the result of this appraisal.

Correction [2022/02/21] Corrected typo Source: 9to5Mac, Apple-1 Registry