For the seller

Leica serial numbers: what they tell you

Every Leica camera body and lens carries its own serial number. It tells you roughly when it was made and which model the number was allocated to, and it is the first thing to check if you want to know whether a Leica is what it says it is. On its own, it rarely changes what a camera is worth.

Where to find it

On most Leica film cameras the serial number is engraved on the top plate, usually beside the accessory shoe. Lenses carry their own number, normally on the ring around the front element or on the barrel. The camera and the lens were made separately and sold separately, so it is normal for their numbers to be far apart.

What the number tells you

Leitz allocated serial numbers in blocks, one block at a time, to a particular model. A number therefore tells you which model it was allocated to and roughly when. Because blocks were handed out ahead of production and models overlapped, a number is a close guide to the year rather than an exact date.

For the classic M cameras, the first numbers allocated to each model are a useful starting point:

Model Introduced Numbers begin around
M3 1954 700 000
M2 1957 926 001
M1 1959 950 001
M4 1967 1 175 001
M5 1971 1 287 001
M4-2 1977 1 480 001
M4-P 1981 1 543 351
M6 1984 1 657 251

The ranges overlap, which is why an M4 can have a lower number than a late M3. A full list of every block, model by model, is kept by CameraQuest and in the Leica Pocket Book.

One number is worth knowing on its own: M3 cameras from 919 251 onward have a single-stroke film advance. Earlier ones need two strokes of the lever. Collectors sometimes prefer one or the other, and it is the quickest way to tell them apart.

Checking whether a Leica is genuine

Leica has been copied for as long as it has existed. The most common copies are Soviet cameras, often FED or Zorki bodies, dressed up with Leica engravings, wartime markings or unlikely inscriptions. A few things are worth checking:

  • Does the number fall in a block for this model? A serial number that belongs to a different model is the first question to ask.
  • Do the engravings look right? Genuine engravings are crisp and evenly filled. Soft, uneven or oversized lettering is a warning.
  • Is the story too good? Military markings, famous owners and presentation engravings are exactly what copies are made to imitate. They need proof, not just a story.

None of this replaces a look by somebody who handles Leicas regularly, but it catches most of the obvious ones.

What the number does not tell you

A serial number does not tell you the condition, and condition is most of the value: whether the shutter runs at the right speeds, whether the rangefinder is bright and aligned, whether the lens is clear. Outside a few special cases, such as the very first or last numbers of a model or a documented special edition, a low or high number adds little on its own.

If you want to know what a particular camera is worth, our guide to whether old cameras are worth anything explains how to look at it. Several Leicas have their own page in The models, such as the Leica Minilux.

If there is more than one Leica

A Leica is often the best piece of a larger collection: a few bodies, a drawer of lenses, the finders, hoods and cases that went with them. If that is what you have, we buy it whole. Our Pass it on page explains how.

Short answers

How do I date a Leica by its serial number?

Find the number on the top plate and look up which block it falls in. The block tells you the model it was allocated to and roughly the year.

Why are my camera and lens numbers so different?

Bodies and lenses were numbered separately. Different numbers are normal and say nothing about whether they belong together.

Does a low serial number make a Leica more valuable?

Rarely. Condition and completeness matter far more, except for the first or last cameras of a model and documented special editions.

Why we keep the story

A collection is not a pile of objects.

It is years of somebody deciding what was worth keeping, and sold off piece by piece that is the first thing to go. So before anything is sold, we sit down with you and record it: how it started, what the best of it was, the piece that got away. That story stays on every object with the collector's name, and goes with it to whoever keeps it next. You get a page where you can see where each piece ended up.

Three ways the story gets recorded

On camera, where it lives. We travel to the collection and film it properly: you talking about how it started, the room and the shelves as they are, the objects in your hands. Wherever in the world the collection happens to be.

On a call. If the collection is sent to us rather than collected, we have the same conversation over a video call and write it up, with one photograph of the shelf as it stood.

In writing. If you would rather not talk at all, answer a handful of questions in your own time and in your own words. It goes on the objects exactly as you wrote it.

It never changes anything else, and you can always say no to it. Some conversations run ten minutes, some an afternoon. Read the collections we have taken on

If it is a whole collection

We buy whole collections, not single pieces: one person takes all of it, and the story is kept with every object. Tell us what you have and a person replies within two days.

How passing it on works, in full

1The collection
What is in it
Pick everything that applies. Something else opens a line to tell us.
Roughly how many pieces
A guess is fine. Nobody has counted.
How would you describe it
There is no wrong answer here, and a lot of ordinary is a normal collection.
One or two sentences. This is the question we care about most.
2Where it is, and how it could reach us
Town and country is enough.
How could it reach us
Unseend is in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Sending and bringing are as welcome as a visit; if it is sent, we pay the freight and insure it.
When does it need to be gone
No hurry is a good answer. It lets us plan a visit properly.
3Condition and photographs
In your own words. Broken, incomplete or untested is fine and is normal; it only needs saying.
Photographs
Three to ten photographs The room and the shelves as they stand. Phone photographs are fine, and a slow walk round on video says more than any of them.Send them to hello@unseend.com
Or attach them to the reply that comes back within two days. Any of them works, and nothing is looked at until a person reads it. Do not clean up first — the shelves as they stand tell us more than a tidy arrangement.
4The number, and the story
A number or a range, whatever you have in mind. You will get an honest answer either way.
Would you tell the story of it
Filmed at the collection wherever it is, on a video call, or written in your own time. It never changes the price.
5How to reach you
The reply comes here, from a person, within two days.
Only if you would rather be called.

Answered within two days, by the person who would come, and by email at every step after that. Nothing you send is shared with anyone, and your photographs are deleted if we do not go ahead.

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