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 June 2019

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Late WRA Co boxes with no headstamp on the label's cartridge illustration......

For some time now I've had a fascination with Winchester's center fire cartridge boxes that have no headstamp on the cartridges illustrated on the box labels. These will only be found on the boxes of those cartridges that were introduced prior to the mid-1880s, after which the company began applying headstamps to it's commercial  ammunition. Typically, the earliest examples of these cartridge boxes would have had an unheadstamped cartridge illustration, but once a headstamp began to be applied to a particular cartridge and the supply of the early 'unheadstamped' labels was exhausted, new labels would be designed and printed that included the headstamp. Slow moving, less popular calibers might take some time to use up the old labels, resulting in boxes with the unheadstamped labels containing headstamped cartridges for a time. However, for some popular cartridges, the boxes appear to have never included a headstamp on the cartridge illustration, even well after the company began headstamping their .50-70 cartridges. One such example is this very worn Winchester .50-70 Government box.

Based on the latest of the hyphenated date codes that appear on the lower right corner of each of the various labels, including 1-12 on the front label, 6-9 on the upper end label and the back 'reloading' label, and 2-10 on the lower 'red W' end label, this box was packaged no earlier than January 1912. Depending on what date code was on the portion of the top label that is missing, this 'packaged no earlier than' date could be later if the missing date code was later than 1-12. 

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The enlarged 'License to trade in the United States of America' label shown below is on the back of this box. It was used from 1910 through 1913, and will be found with a large 'VOID' overstamp after 1912. The lack of the overstamp on the label supports this box having been packaged during 1912. 

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Another example of these late Winchester boxes that doesn't have a headstamp on the label illustrations is this .50 Carbine box shown below. Based on the date codes on this box, 9-10 on the top label (which covers the end of the box as well), 2-7 on the 'reloading' label, and 8-12 on the colorful insert, this box of cartridges was packaged no earlier than August 1912, twenty five or more years after the cartridges themselves began being headstamped.

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Sources:

One Hundred Years of Winchester Cartridge Boxes 1856 - 1956 by Ray Giles and Dan Shuey 1856-1956, 2006, Schiffler Publishing, Ltd, 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA. 19310

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