The Apple-1 Registry

Serial number on the back

The serial number on the back of the Apple-1 was most likely written by Steve Jobs. According to available information, a forensic analysis has not yet been performed for this Apple-1. However, for some other Apple-1s with a serial number on the back it has been confirmed that it is Steve Jobs' handwriting. More information.

Description

Apple-1 #91 in the Apple-1 Registry got the same number on the back. More about this fact can be read in the description of #91.

History

Purchased a week after the Atlantic City computer show by James Coble. Here is his story.
I own an Apple I that I bought from Stan Veit's New York Computer Mart during the week following the August 28, 1976, computer show held at the Shelbourne Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. My unit carrier the number 01-0052 handwritten on the motherboard. Stan Veit told me that the original purchases from Apple consisted of 50 units to the Byte Shop and one to the Computer Mart Los Angeles and one to him at Computer Mart, New York. The one shipped direct to him from Apple was marked 01-0052 and the one to LA was 01-0051.

The Apple-1 was a demo unit from Stan Veit and already in the case. Sold by Stan Veit to James Coble for US$ 1,000 in September 1977.

Auctions

no auction
(see History for more information)

Components

White ceramic CPU MOS 6502 (1576), plastic PIA AMI S6820 (7601), plastic DRAM MK4096-11, Blue capacitors.

Equipment

Unique case with built-in screen and keyboard. Original Apple Cassette Interface. Cassettes. Almost new looking and date-correct transformers from 1975 and 76. Monitor MV-900 from March 76.Operation manual with stamp "Computer Mart of New York Inc.". Apple-1 ads.

State

Very good.

Stories

The owner asked Steve Wozniak about his Apple-1 and he answered (Permission to publish by the owner).

Question: "Steve: The above picture is the Apple I that I saw you and Steve Jobs demonstrating at Stan Veit's booth in Atlantic City. It contained Apple I motherboard marked 01-0052. I purchased the package from Stan at the Computer Mart, New York, on the Thursday following the show.
My question: Did you and Jobs bring a functioning unit with you from California or was the one pictured the only unit working during the show. I just can't remember if there was more than one Apple working.

Answer: "This Apple I was working during the show. We had a couple of early Apple I boards working. I was completing a lot of the BASIC upstairs in my hotel room on another of them while Steve Jobs and Dan Kottke demonstrated on the floor. We had not yet shipped an Apple I but we were very close. Stan was basically our second customer, at a much lower quantity than the Byte shop.

We came down one night when every exhibitor was gone and the guy with the projection TV (very rare in that day) was packing up. I wanted to see if my Apple II color video (violating every known engineering principle for generating color TV and saving hundreds of dollars) would work on a projection TV. Yes, we had a working Apple II prototype that we were not showing. We brought it down and it worked on the projection TV. As soon as the tech running that projector saw the Apple II and what it would do he told us that of all the startup ‘computers’ there, this is the one he would want. Word of the Apple II did not leak out."

From the owner the full historical background of this Apple-1
BACKGROUND ON APPLE-1 COMPUTER #01-0052
On August 22, 2001, I initiated email communications with Mr. Stan Veit, a gentleman described as “An entrepreneur and publisher who played an important role in the early days of the personal computer industry in the United States”. Stan was also one of the first three Apple Computer dealers in the whole world and the man that sold me an Apple-1 on or about September 1, 1977.
In an insuring email, August 23, 2001, Mr. Veit requested that I give him a brief history of my Apple-1 after he sold the unit to me. On August 26th I answered his request with a somewhat expanded history in the copy of my email shown below:

August 26, 2001
Enclosed are copies of the Apple-1 Operation Manual, Cassette Interface Manual, loading instruction for Apple Basic and an Apple-1 sales brochure. Also enclosed are photographs of the Apple-1 board, a close up of the serial number #01-0052 and a picture of the “finished Apple-1” that I purchased from you during the week following the Atlantic City Personal Computer Festival, August 27-28, 1977.

Background Relative to Purchase:
In 1971 I was employed by the U.S. Customs Service as a Special Agent (Criminal Investigator). In June, 1977, I was selected to attend a month long Customs Computer School in Washington, D.C. At that school I learned extensively about the Treasury Enforcement Computer System (TECS). In addition, I received a rudimentary course in Basic language programming.
Thus, the stage was set for my visit to the Atlantic City personal computer show in August of that year. At the show I was blown away by the Apple-1 computer that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were demonstrating in your Computer Mart booth. After receiving a short tutorial from the two Steve’s, I talked to You and established that the demo unit was for sale. I wanted the demo unit because I did not have the tools or the technical savvy to work from scratch.
On the following Wednesday or Thursday, I went to your store at 341 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan and purchased, from you, the Apple-1 unit that we now know as #52 for $1000.

Post Purchase Recollections:
After purchasing my very own computer I went home and over the next two years I spent countless hours writing short Basic programs and inputting scores of programs published in computer magazines and books that sprang up everywhere in the late 1970’s.
No fewer than six times during the first year I called California for information and help to solve problems with #52. The person taking those calls was usually Steve Wozniak. We had no personal relationship, I was just another voice at the end of a telephone line. It was not until years later that I realized what service I was getting for nothing.
In 1980 old #52 got to be a bit cranky and ultimately stopped working altogether. Because of my professional work load I did not have time to get it checked until early 1981. At that time the Apple-II was out and personal computers and computer stores were popping up like mushrooms.
On one Saturday morning I took old #52 into the Apple Computer dealer in Matawan, N.J. The owner of the store took one look at what I had brought in and went ballistic. He acted as though I had brought in the Holy Grail. He said that he could not fix my machine but he would call the Apple Regional Office in Charlotte, N.C. and see what might be done. When I went back to the Matawan store the following week the owner asked me to contact an executive at Apple, Charlotte, I believe his name was Jack Caldwell. I contacted that person and was advised to call Steve Jobs’ office to discuss an Apple-1 for an Apple II swap.
Long story short: I called the number given me by Apple, Charlotte and spoke with a female who was expecting my call. She stated that she was prepared to make an Apple-II for Apple-I swap. I asked what that included. She said “the Apple II package with one floppy drive”.
When I said that my heart was set on a two-floppy system, she got real uppity and acted like I was an extortionist. At that point I suggested what she could do with her Apple II and thus ended my relationship with Apple Computer headquarters.
In mid-1981 I took the next step in computer ownership. I purchased an Osborne I (brown case) portable. With the luxury of 64K RAM and twin single sided, single density floppy disks and the advent of packaged software, my computer became a significant career advancing tool.
When Ozzie came to town #52 got packed up and put in a safe place, only to be brought out, from time to time, for the view of true believers. The unit is, today, exactly as it was when I carried it out of your store in 1977.
We have come an incredibly long way in a very short time.

Last update

Nov 16, 2021

Change log (since March 20, 2018)

May 23, 2019: 4 picture(s) added
May 23, 2019: Components. Equipment
May 23, 2019: Description of picture(s)/video(s)
May 23, 2019: Last verification added. Additional info. State added
May 23, 2019: Verification status
May 25, 2019: Description of picture(s)/video(s)
May 25, 2019: Owner added
May 26, 2019: 9 picture(s) added
May 27, 2019: Story added
May 31, 2019: Description of picture(s)/video(s)
May 31, 2019: 10 picture(s) added
May 31, 2019: Components (shortlist). Components
May 31, 2019: Equipment
May 31, 2019: Additional information. History. Story
Jun 07, 2019: 4 picture(s) added
Jun 07, 2019: Equipment
Jun 15, 2019: Components
Nov 14, 2019: Description of picture(s)/video(s)
Dec 27, 2019: Description added
Nov 16, 2021: Description

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