Odd zippo war lighter "Rippo"

[hyena429]

This is a odd war lighter i found in my grannies house 15 yearish ago when she past away...been sitting in this old house sence the 70's....I made a small video on it..And i stumped the zippo club...They never seen a fake Zippo like it...Its marked all funny...And marked Made in T.Y.S...Which all zippo's are made in the usa....Got great markings and age..They said its one of the oldest rip offs they ever seen...It has markings..It was probably sold too a solider down in korea shop and he had it personalized...And never realised it wasnt a real zippo...Only a pro now days could tell...I didnt know for a while till i tried too look it up...And got stumped...I have never seen another one like it...It is quite a rare odd lighter...It is probably worth more than most zippos..Its old...its rare..and defenalty made around that time.

So many in that old house served in the military..Its too bad most have past on..I dont know if it was a lighter my grampa or one of his uncles picked up some where.

small vid i did on it..And other lighters i collected over the years..im not a super lighter collector..But i did keep quite a few from my smoking days...Non smoker for over 15 years and going.
Some pictures of it...Vid is a little better detail...watcha all think?

 

[73vertproject]

My uncle was stationed in Korea during that time. It says 60 - 61. TYS might be The Yunited States??? I was at Osan and Taegu while serving in the Navy and saw a bunch of knockoff stuff, especially tennis shoes.

Cool post. Thanks.

 

[hyena429]

Ya..My freind posted laughing the Yunited states to...lol..But who knows...I heard.......T.Y.S..."Told you so" ...lol

My uncle was stationed in Korea during that time. It says 60 - 61. TYS might be The Yunited States??? I was at Osan and Taegu while serving in the Navy and saw a bunch of knockoff stuff, especially tennis shoes.

Cool post. Thanks.

Btw...EE DEE WHA GI? That mean come here GI? I looked it up a bit..lol

 

[JimNiki]

bought a pair of 3 way stereo speakers in the 80's. I bought them because on the box it had printed "made in USA". I find out later that "USA", pronounced "oosa" is a village somewhere in China!. Needless to say, they were crap.

 

[OLE PONY]

That's a neat lighter. I'm sure your going to hang onto it!

 

[hyena429]

That's a neat lighter. I'm sure your going to hang onto it!

Yes im going to try too..Unless some rippo collector offers me a deal i cant refuse...Sence im not sure what family member its from..No real attachments besides its a odd peice of histoy....But i cant find one like it..There are other Rippo's out there..But usualy they are more modern...Cause back then it didnt quite pay as well to copy zippo's..And its quite hard and sometimes spendy to do so in any kinda quality way...Specialy war zippo's..In 15 years of owning it...I never found one like it saying..Made in T.Y.S..

 

[Don65Stang]

Pretty neat rippo you've got.

 

[hyena429]

Pretty neat rippo you've got.

Thanks don...Its a cool conversation peice if anything..lol...Get his...I been told you flip it upside down and you get a dirty picture? or what he said down below? anyone else see that? i emailed a big web site that was all about rippos..and he told me some real interesting stuff...what he said today.

This lighter is interesting. It was manufactured in Korea for U.S. soldiers.

It should date from the early 50s.

At that time, the code was that of the first zippo 2517191 (just before the one with the zorro style).

I think TYS stands for Made in The Younited States.

There are many copies of zippo from Korea including the famous white box with the flame.

If you return the drawing of the young woman, you will discover that his shoulder is his thigh.

This drawing has been known since the Korean War and is on many vietnam zippo.

I hope this has helped you

Sincerely, Robert

 

[whitesoc]

I wonder how many guys scrolled back to the top of this tread to and turned their heads to see the picture from a different view.....

I've got a sore neck now!lollerz

 

[TheJ]

Pretty neat rippo you've got.

Thanks don...Its a cool conversation peice if anything..lol...Get his...I been told you flip it upside down and you get a dirty picture? or what he said down below? anyone else see that? i emailed a big web site that was all about rippos..and he told me some real interesting stuff...what he said today.

This lighter is interesting. It was manufactured in Korea for U.S. soldiers.

It should date from the early 50s.

At that time, the code was that of the first zippo 2517191 (just before the one with the zorro style).

I think TYS stands for Made in The Younited States.

There are many copies of zippo from Korea including the famous white box with the flame.

If you return the drawing of the young woman, you will discover that his shoulder is his thigh.

This drawing has been known since the Korean War and is on many vietnam zippo.

I hope this has helped you

Sincerely, Robert

I don't know if you guys know who Cutlerylover is but I PMed him about this and this is what he said:

its a common korean war fake, the vietnam fakes are more common but these are out there too...the zippos markings are fake the insert may be real, but the markings were faked for collector value it was probably faked just for a more profit from sale, a korean might have taken the time to engrave this the way they did because it would make the value $10 instead of $2, that could have been the meaning of him eating or not that day...

So I guess that confirms what you found out.

 

[hyena429]

This lighter is interesting. It was manufactured in Korea for U.S. soldiers.

It should date from the early 50s.

At that time, the code was that of the first zippo 2517191 (just before the one with the zorro style).

I think TYS stands for Made in The Younited States.

There are many copies of zippo from Korea including the famous white box with the flame.

If you return the drawing of the young woman, you will discover that his shoulder is his thigh.

This drawing has been known since the Korean War and is on many vietnam zippo.

I hope this has helped you

Sincerely, Robert

I don't know if you guys know who Cutlerylover is but I PMed him about this and this is what he said:

its a common korean war fake, the vietnam fakes are more common but these are out there too...the zippos markings are fake the insert may be real, but the markings were faked for collector value it was probably faked just for a more profit from sale, a korean might have taken the time to engrave this the way they did because it would make the value $10 instead of $2, that could have been the meaning of him eating or not that day...

So I guess that confirms what you found out.

The insert is marked..Made in tys too...and stamped pretty much the same as the bottom....One thing for a fact.. "This" lighter i got is not a comon copy...If it was i would be able to find the same markings...And all the expert zippo lighter folks on zen zippo network have never seen a rippo like it...And these folks know alot about there zippo's i believe.

http://vietnam.zippo.free.fr/fake.htm <~~this website is just one of the many i emailed...and everyone of them have been baffled by the markings on the bottom of my lighter...They have never seen one marked made in T.Y.S...in the last 15 years i looked threw alot of Rippo's just to find one like it...With no luck....I can find the famous engraving..."close too it"...But none made in tys...Nor have the same markings....Its a old rippo copy thats for sure...But it is a rare unseen rippo..serious Rippo collectors told me..Too be honest it was worth more than alot of real zippo's to them..cause its a unseen rippo...If anyone can find anothere marked made in tys...I will eat those words...lol..So would all the big wigs at the web sites..cause they never seen one like it either...They all seen fakes..But this is a new one for them..lol

http://zippoenthusiastnetwork.ning.com/ These folks helped me and pointed me in the right direction...And its collectors from around the world...And they are very blunt folks..lol

Some of there replies... Reply by bullwinkle on Wednesday

Well, this certainly is a first for me. I've never seen an attempt to fake an early bottom stamp like this. This is totally bogus as this layout for a 2517191 stamp was never done. They took the pattern for a 2032695 stamp from c1953 and swapped the patent number.

Reply by Boozybloke on Wednesday

Well welcome to you Michael, I have a feeling you'll fit in well around here- first thread and you've pulled out a proper interesting piece; whether it's a fake or not it looks like it may have a good deal of history to it, and if it's a really early fake then it surely has a value on it's own merits regardless of whether it's a fake. I'm drawing comparisons with my other collecting hobby of pokerchips, but early counterfit chips have a whole sub-set of collectors and can sometimes be as valuable as genuine chips.

Reply by sandm on Wednesday

This would have to be the oldest Rippo I have heard of......Since it has been in the family for years, it can't be recent......This reminds me of Super Zippo, John Howards fake from the 50's.

A few comments i got from the comunity on the lighter and about it

 

[TheJ]

Oh ok, I see what your saying. That is odd I've never seen one like that either, but I'm a noob to zippos so that's not saying much.

 

[hyena429]

Oh ok, I see what your saying. That is odd I've never seen one like that either, but I'm a noob to zippos so that's not saying much.

Same here..hehe..I got a small collection of zippos...In the video i show some of them..But im hardly a serious collector..Nor do i know much about them.....So i had to contact the zippo collectors and see what they thought about it..Cause i hit a wall looking threw pages and pages tring to find one like her..Like i said i had it for 15 years...I would look online every few years when i remmeber too..and see if one popped up..With no luck..I emailed a few sites..And they always come back with..mmmmmm i have not seen a rippo like this..lol