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	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 - 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	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 - 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	Nickel Silver was used for the case: steel or nickel silver was used for the insert.
	1947	Insert had 16 holes.
	1948	The base material was changed from nickel silver to brass.
	1949	Late in 1949 the 3 barrel-hinge was switched to 5-barrel hinge..
	1950	Fully covered leather lighters. Red, blue, green, tan calfskin and English Moroccan were available.
	1951	Zippo lighters were manufactured from steel until late 1953 when they returned to chrome plated brass.
	1952	Wrap around leather model replaced the fully covered leather lighter.
	1953	New marking of Pat. No. The bottom was changed from PAT.2032695 to PAT.2517191.
	1954	Zippo lighter cases returned to chrome plated brass when the Korean war was over.
	1955	-
	1956	-
	1957	-
	1958	-
	1959	-
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	1961	-
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	1984	-
	1985	-
	1986	-
	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	-
	1989	-
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	1991	-
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