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1973 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Centurian Serial # CIL 3185107 1973 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Centurian typewriter, Serial # CIL 3185107 James Grooms's 1973 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Centurian typewriter. 2026-05-24 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of James Grooms: 1973 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Centurian Serial # CIL 3185107 My office compact kick continues with this interesting example. Interesting, and not in a good way. Litton milked the Royal name for all it was worth. They are Silver Seikos, but I don't think SS ever offered an SP-9000 in any other configuration. Most manufacturers would license an established Brother or Nakajima and use it. This thing is clearly assembled from parts from the Royal bins. There is a lot of Electress in it, and that's not a good thing. A rubber power roller vs fluted shaft is quiet, but it doesn't bode well for getting one to type 40 plus years later. The space bar is a plastic cam trip, and once the power roller shrinks, that thing is toast.

They sold a lot of these, and you can find them in all the usual places. I had never seen one that wasn't stuck. Recently, while on the hunt for other, more important things, I set aside around a dozen of these. These were the ones that looked the most promising after a quick look. And the stuck situation continued, for the most part, after doing a power-up test on those twelve. If they weren't stuck, they sounded rough. I thought this one was the best and two others for parts should get me a working one?

I cleaned the segment and did a minor clean elsewhere. I used some rubber renew on the roller. This has the spacebar firing for now. The tab is inop and you'll never get a good impression without a new power roller, so I buttoned it up. All the toothed belts might prove useful for something else down the road?

1973 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Centurian #CIL 3185107

Status: My Collection
Hunter: James Grooms (jgrooms)
Created: 05-24-2026 at 02:25PM
Last Edit: 05-24-2026 at 04:08PM

Description Hunter 19 Photos 0 Likes  Find on Ebay #AD  Find on Etsy #AD

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My office compact kick continues with this interesting example. Interesting, and not in a good way. Litton milked the Royal name for all it was worth. They are Silver Seikos, but I don't think SS ever offered an SP-9000 in any other configuration. Most manufacturers would license an established Brother or Nakajima and use it. This thing is clearly assembled from parts from the Royal bins. There is a lot of Electress in it, and that's not a good thing. A rubber power roller vs fluted shaft is quiet, but it doesn't bode well for getting one to type 40 plus years later. The space bar is a plastic cam trip, and once the power roller shrinks, that thing is toast.

They sold a lot of these, and you can find them in all the usual places. I had never seen one that wasn't stuck. Recently, while on the hunt for other, more important things, I set aside around a dozen of these. These were the ones that looked the most promising after a quick look. And the stuck situation continued, for the most part, after doing a power-up test on those twelve. If they weren't stuck, they sounded rough. I thought this one was the best and two others for parts should get me a working one?

I cleaned the segment and did a minor clean elsewhere. I used some rubber renew on the roller. This has the spacebar firing for now. The tab is inop and you'll never get a good impression without a new power roller, so I buttoned it up. All the toothed belts might prove useful for something else down the road?

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Hunter: James Grooms (jgrooms)

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Typewriters are the perfect blend of using one's technical skills, history and functional purpose. My goal is type tested machines. My interests are not isolated to any one area. For example, I am a big fan of Smith Corona electrics, mid century electrics and all things Royal.


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