Welcome to the Zippo Identification page.
On this page you should be able to get a good idea of how old your Zippo is.

If the bottom
of your lighter
looks like this.......		 Then the year it was made is........ ....and it matches this description.....
1933 1933 This lighter is 2 7/16 inches tall and is made from rectangular brass tubing. The body has square corners and the top, bottom and hinge have been soldered to the body, then chrome plated. It is believed the early model has a plain chrome finish and the later has diagonal lines cut in the upper right and the lower left corner. The insert had a coil spring under the cam and there were 16 holes in the chimney.
1934 1934 - 1935 This lighter is similar to the 1933 lighter, however the lighter was shortened by 1/4 inch. The lighter still has an outside three barrel hinge. Advertising on the lighters began in 1935.
1936
1937 		1936 - 1937 The lighter still has square corners and square inserts. Zippo switched to a 4-barrel hinge in 1936 instead of a 3-barrel hinge, but the hinge was still on the outside of the case with Patent Pending stamped on the bottom. The Patent 2032695 was issued on March 3rd, 1936. Later in 1936, Zippo placed the hinge on the inside of the lighter case and changed the bottom from Patent Pending to PAT 2032695. The insert also changed from 16 holes in the chimney (eight per side) to 14 (seven per side).
1938 1938 - 1940 In 1938, Zippo introduced a brass drawn case. The lighter also had a new style leaf spring instead of the coil spring. Machine engraving was introduced in 1940. The lighter still has square insert, but the sides have rounded corners.
1941 - 1945 Zippo used steel instead of brass and applied chrome plating as a finish due to the material shortage of World War II. In 1942 a "Black Crackle" finish was used to cover the low quality steel surface. The 1942 lighters have a rounded bottom and the cam shape was typically distorted. The 4-barrel was switched to a 3-barrel hinge. The engraving that appeared on the bottom of the lighter also appeared on the insert.
1946 1946 Nickel Silver was used for the case: steel or nickel silver was used for the insert.
1947 1947 Insert had 16 holes.
1948 1948 The base material was changed from nickel silver to brass.
1949 1949 Late in 1949 the 3 barrel-hinge was switched to 5-barrel hinge..
1950 1950 Fully covered leather lighters. Red, blue, green, tan calfskin and English Moroccan were available.
1951 1951 Zippo lighters were manufactured from steel until late 1953 when they returned to chrome plated brass.
1952 1952 Wrap around leather model replaced the fully covered leather lighter.
1953 1953 New marking of Pat. No. The bottom was changed from PAT.2032695 to PAT.2517191.
1954 1954 Zippo lighter cases returned to chrome plated brass when the Korean war was over.
1955 1955 -
1956 1956 -
1957 1957 -
1958 1958 -
1959 1959 -
1960 1960 -
1961 1961 -
1962 1962 -
1963 1963 -
1964 1964 -
1965 1965 -
1966 1966 -
1967 1967 -
1968 1968 -
1969 1969 -
1970 1970 -
1971 1971 -
1972 1972 -
1973 1973 -
1974 1974 -
1975 1975 -
1976 1976 -
1977 1977 -
1978 1978 -
1979 1979 -
1980 1980 -
1981 1981 -
1982 1982 -
1983 1983 -
1984 1984 -
1985 1985 -
1986 1986 -
1987 1987 Zippo started using the Roman Numeral in late 1986. This was to indicate what year the lighter was actually manufactured. This was stamped on the bottom of the lighter to the right of the Zippo Logo.
1988 1988 -
1989 1989 -
1990 1990 -
1991 1991 -
1992 1992 -
1993 1993 -
1994 1994 -
1995 1995 -
1996 1996 -
1997 1997 -
1998 1998 -
1999 1999 -
2000 2000 -