View-Master Gold Center Reels - 1st Generation

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Gold Center Reels - 1st Generation of View-Master Reels
1939-1940

All our Gold Foil (Center) Reels are excellent except where noted, appropriate envelopes are included, but some may have wear. It is very hard to find sleeves in excellent condition.

CONDITION and PRICE:
Over the years, the reels have been exposed to moisture, dirt, and many destructive elements and thus the images may have suffered some degradation. This shows up as violet spots on the images or sometimes as dark areas. We make note of these conditions and discount the price of the reels accordingly. Each reel that we sell is inspected.

Many gold center reels have defects and this affects the price:

1) warpage of the entire reel - it is not straight but has a curve

2) rippling - raised parts of the reel in-between images

3) soiling on the gold center

4) images are bowed in (concave)

5) image(s) have a defect in the image i.e., violet spot, dark spot, light spot

The first reels produced by View-Master were made from a dark blue paper stock and are today called "gold center" reels because of the gold foil in the center of the reel. Manufactured from 1939 to 1940, there were only 125 to 135 different titles produced. The reel lettering was hand engraved and printed on the reels; while the images were in Kodachrome . It is unclear why production ceased so soon, but speculation is that the reels warped easily and the gold foil center was very fragile. Thus, the Blue Ring reel was introduced.

All gold center reels come with a sleeve and almost all have some "rippling" or warpage. Yet they all go through a viewer. Reels still retain much of their original color.

First style of sleeve - like a folder - cardboard

Later sleeves were made of fragile foil-type paper.

All our Gold Foil Reels are excellent except where noted, appropriate envelopes are included, but some may have wear. It is very hard to find sleeves in excellent condition.