1984 Erika 34 (GREEK)


This lovely white Erika arrived a couple days ago in almost mint condition.  The platen was still squishy, the feed rollers and feet were soft, the only signs of use were some slight scuffs on the rear plastic panel.  I normally wouldn't have purchased the machine, I'm not the largest fan of machines made after the 1960s, though there are some good models.  This is a good model, but the main reason I got it was for the Greek keyboard.  It's kind of cool.  I used to fool around with classical Greek way back in middle school with my friend Timothy Holman, a composition major and typewriter collector.

The machine itself needed minimal work.  It needed alignment on the shift lock, which was basically loosening the bracket, and the removal of some cobwebs that had taken hold underneath.  Then it needed a segment flush and some internal cleaning, wrapping things up with a polish on the plastic body panels.  It has a very smooth action with the level keytops, two separately acting shift keys (basket shift), and has 5 dead accent keys.  Dead keys meaning they don't advance the carriage when pressed.  This allows you to type the accent and then the letter underneath without having to backspace.  The only thing I noticed about this machine that was odd was the lack of a question mark.  Perhaps someone can help me shed some light on the matter.

I'm most likely going to list this machine for sale in the coming weeks since I don't speek Greek, and probably won't pick it up anytime soon.  It has the original case in fair condition, as well as the original owners manual (in German of course) and a test sheet, in which some people tried to write, but being American failed miserably. 


Never seriviced, the screws are still factory sealed

Look at that gorgous platen





I missed a word.  Dare you to find which one.
Also had to feed the ribbon in the other way because it was rubbing
on the page, leaving these annoying marks.

and a cleaner type sample?

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