Hi i have recently purchased a bsa m 20 and i am looking to find out more about it, On the rear mudguard there is a plate which after removing many layers of paint revealed a chassis contract No 294/23/S.7128 And catalogue ref No 37 interestingly there is above the S.7128 An S7218 stamped also?? the post war No is 22-ZC-98 The tank has multiple layers of Red and blue royal artillery painted insignia on top of each other there are many layers of paint, any help would be very much appreciated many thanks Fraser

email (option): fraser.reid1558@googlemail.com

Hello Fraser, it looks like this contract plate is a case of a large scale typo, every example I have seen so far has a similar alteration.

Could you supply a descent photograph of yours to compare, I have always wondered just how identical they were, was the alteration done by a machine or some poor bloke with a hammer and a variety of stamps?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Hi Rob thanks for the reply, i will post a picture up tomorrow evening for you to see, the plate you have shown looks the same though, do you know what this plate means. cheers Fraser

email (option): fraser.reid1558@googlemail.com

Hi Fraser, these plates were fitted on most British Army vehicles and were for the Ordnance Corps and Later REME fitters or mechanics to select the correct spare parts list so they knew which parts to fit when a vehicle came in for repair, S7218 is the basic contract number in this case placed in August 1944 for 10,000 BSA M20s, although this number was reduced because the war finished before they were all done. Catalogue Ref "37" this was the 37th contract of Army War Department BSAs of all types from some time in the 1930s. The RAF and Admiralty also placed contracts and they had contract numbers but were not included in the Cat Ref system.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

This contract plate is from my own bike frame no WM20 102542,there is also one on my 3HW,and another on a G3L toolbox lying about somewhere.

All the parts and bikes I've had through my hands over the years and I've yet to get an original contract plate... ....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Rob,

Here is one I have - but the corrected 'typo' has slight differences.

I can't be 100% but your picture appears to show two strike-through lines whereas mine is very definitely three.
The corrected number also looks like the spacing of the digits is a little different - might be imagining that as it seems like a 'boil the ocean' task to manually correct these in volume.



This contract plate does not match any of my bikes so if it will make someones day I would be quite happy to swap it for some other WM20 item.