Quote Originally Posted by BBE View Post
I was a working locksmith until 1975 and order those blanks regularly until May, 1975 when I went to work for Medeco. In 1999 I went to work for Master lock and during the next 12 years various people told me the discontinued date. Oddly, at MLC once something is discontinued they no longer keep records about it so there wasn't anywhere to look it up.
Thanks for the information. It seems that Master was replacing their lion head logo on packages, etc. with a stylized laminated padlock logo (the one seen here; the trademark registration of this logo shows a first use date of 1968) around the time period I gave, so it's interesting that they continued to use the lion key design for so long.

According to an old internal newsletter, the 77 was first available in june, 1932. In 1941 the walking lion was changed to a lion head.
BBE.
Great information. Thanks! I've seen a 1944 date for when the change was made in the description of a YouTube video (the uploader of which mentioned talking to Master Lock in the comments) and in an eBay listing by another collector, but wondered what you'd have to say on it.

(Side note: While the description of that video says that the #77 was discontinued in 1993, the pamphlet that came with Master's 1996 75th-anniversary special edition of the #220 padlock says that the #77 was discontinued in 1996.)

I must say that I greatly appreciate you sharing some of the Master Lock information you have had on these forums over the years. I always love learning more Master dating information that I didn't know to replace the estimates I've come up with based on observing what's out there and the information I do have (not to mention that someday I hope to have a website on vintage Master locks up, so the more solid information, the better), and most of the solid introduction, discontinuation, etc. dates I have are from posts by you on these forums. Kudos.

Zachary.