The Internet Pinball Serial Number Database or IPSND collects serial numbers of pinball machines and publishes a database of these on the Internet. Our goal is to make available a registration of all pinball machines in existence and allow tools for slicing, dicing and visualization of the data.

Games: 6,696  Serials: 68,299  Visitors: 74,157,878  Members: 5,620  Photos: 43,827  Lat/Lng: 37,400  Masks: 68,299(1,020.00%)  Traits: 572  Nudges: 222,337  Backglasses: 1,865
  Most Serials: Twilight Zone(1,305)  Most Submissions: Dennis Braun(6,100)  Most Points: Dennis Braun(45,409)  Highest Quality: The Knight(17.00)  Most Nudges: pinballservice-nl(28,209)
Atlas - IPSND/IPDB No. 107 - May 1959
Backglass Image
Manufacturer: D. Gottlieb & Co. (1931-1977)
Players: 2
MPU: None/Unknown
Production Run: 950
Game Type: Electro-mechanical (EM)
Model: 156
Submissions: 11 serials of 950 (1.16%)
Coverage help:

Coverage is a mathematical interpretation of the serial numbers that have been submitted so far. The term 'coverage' relates to the amount of the production run that has been 'covered' in the given submissions.

There are two coverage methods shown, each has a different approach of calculating an guess on the number of games produced by analysing the currently submitted serial numbers.

Linear: Linear coverage simply looks at the highest serial number and subtracts from it the smallest serial number to estimate the number of games produced. For some games, this works fine because the serial numbers were sequential and without gaps (Early Bally, Early Stern, etc). However, this approach starts to fail quickly for games that serial numbers are part of a bigger numbering scheme (Williams pre 1984, Current Stern) or that intentially had gaps/skips in the numbering sequence(Gottlieb post 1960). If you see a linear coverage number that is higher than the known production run, it is probably not the best way to look at the serial range and you should look at the clustered approach below.

Clustered: Clustered coverage assumes that there are gaps/skips in the serial sequence for a game. It groups the serial numbers together based upon how close they are to the next serial number in the sequence. If they fall within a certain threshold then the SerialBot assumes that there are valid serial numbers between the two. If they are far enough apart, then the SerialBot assumes this is a gap. Once all the gaps and groups are determined, it sums up all the linear ranges in each group. This way, if a sample run of games started at 15,000-15,100 and the production games started at 17,000 onwards, it would assume that the serial numbers between 15,100-17,000 were a gap an are not counted. Using this method, as more serial numbers are submitted the gap analysis will get more accurate.

857 (90.21%) linear / 104(10.95%) in 7 clusters 95 wide.
Cluster Serial Number SerialBot Submitted By Country Game Part

Submit a new Game Trait

The following traits help

Game Traits are properties for an individual game that you would like to see tracked along with the other information gathered for a serial number submission. Some examples of existing traits are... Joust: Black or Blue bottom Arch, Black Knight: Faceted Inserts or Normal Inserts, Twilight Zone: 3rd Magnet Installed or not.

have been submitted for this game...

Field NameDescriptonSubmitted BySubmit DateSubmitted
There are no traits submitted for this game

Cluster Serial Number Country

This section lists any known game part serials that happen to match this game's serial mask (if defined). What this can tell you is if a game has any orphaned parts that might exist in other machines. This generally applies to CPU/MPU boards, Driver Boards, Display boards etc that are easily moved from game to game. Repair shops and distributors often robbed parts from other 'scrap' games laying around in a pinch if they were not able to fix the original part or of the original part was damaged beyond repair. If serials start showing up in the database as 'game parts', there is potentially a good chance that that game has been parted out completely, which is unfortunate. It is becoming more and more common for people to part out games and sell them on ebay simply because the seller can often make more money that way.... Please do not sacrifice complete games for money!!!

SerialBotSerial NumberTypeSubmitted ByCountryDetails
There are no submitted game part serial numbers for this game

This section lists any known information about how to physically find serial numbers on games created by this manufacturer. For all manufacturer tips, please visit the Serial Tips Page . (Please do not post serial numbers here on this form.)

Posted 1/11/2007 11:47:47 PM by Jess Askey

Older Gottlieb games have their serial numbers stamped/etched into the wood on the front of the machine. These can often be hard to read as some have been either damaged or painted over. On woodrails or pre 1960 games, check under the backglass, imprinted in the wood. The serial number may also be imprinted in the wood on the front of the cabinet. On my 1973 Big Indian game, the serial number is on the playfield on a Sticker attached to the top arch. However, there is also a serial number for the backbox (this may not be the same as the playfield number) which is stamped into the wood on the top of the backbox. If you have different serial numbers on the playfield and backbox, please remember to register both.

Posted 9/1/2008 6:15:37 AM by David Van Balen
The serial number of my 1975 Super Soccer was found etched in the wood just behind the coin box.
Posted 10/3/2008 8:22:03 PM by Mal Voisin
My Wild Life had the number stamped in ink, in the pedestal for the head
Posted 10/26/2008 6:00:22 PM by Johnny Booth
My 1950 Double Feature has it's serial number is stamped onto the wooden front part of the machine. Just below the inspection panel.
Posted 1/20/2009 6:11:42 AM by Andreas Klein, GERMANY
The Serial Number of my 1973 Hot Shot is listet just behind the coin Box on the small top of the wood (that "stops" the coin Box). Its painted in black.
Posted 3/14/2009 12:58:03 PM by Larry Gillam
My 1973 Big Shot has the serial number stamped into the wood just below the coin return opening. Same color as cabinet.
Posted 3/27/2009 12:00:03 AM by King of Pinball
On 1933 Big Broadcast (Junior) Machines the serial number is stamped into the wood just below and to the right of the coin drawer. The 4 digit number is about 3/8" high.
Posted 11/6/2009 2:05:05 PM by Byrdie
My 1977 Jacks Open pretty much matches all the tips above. The serial number appears in three places:

1) It is stamped into the front of the cabinet at the upper left, just under the chrome playfield glass retainer;

2) It is stenciled onto the support bar inside the cabinet just behind the coinbox; and

3) It is stenciled onto the top of the backbox.

Some modifications were made to the appearance of this game by a previous owner (it is currently in the process of being restored) so there isn't but I believe there should've been a certificate sticker on the top arch.

Posted 1/24/2010 9:04:23 PM by Mike Gonciarz
My 1966 Hurdy Gurdy has the serial number stamped in the front of the wood and on the Certificate on the top of the playing field.
Posted 3/13/2010 3:05:25 PM by gordon driscoll
my kings and queens number is on front and top of score box
Posted 6/13/2010 10:54:50 PM by jady swinkels
My Surf Champ has the number stamped on the front left hand side just under the lock bar and a second serial number is rubber stamped on top of the backbox which alot bigger in size.
Posted 1/12/2013 12:14:12 PM by Todd Anderson
03186 Etched on wood in front panel below coin device plate
Posted 6/18/2016 10:42:30 PM by B Holland
My Pinball Queen SN is on a label in the upper left hand of the playfield
Members can submit new tips on how to find serial numbers! Sign up for a free membership here!

This game has the following serial number formats defined in the database. As serial numbers are sumbitted, trends are recognized and defined or information about a serial number format is collected through historical information.

TypeExamplesRegExMaskLowerLimitUpperLimitAutoAssignable
Production Game E05006, E05467 ^E(?<sortdata>05[0-9][0-9][0-9])$ False


The Serial Bot Summary information here gives a detailed explanation of the Serial Bot analysis for this specific game. The theory behind the Serial Bot is this...

Every game has many many serial number submissions, the goal of the IPSND is not to guarantee that *all* information is 100% correct but that over time, the system should automatically devalue inaccurate submissions while increasing the value of correct submissions.

You may click on the SerialBot score of any submission to see how it was calculated.

SerialBot Color Codes:
- Not Validated The serial number submission has not yet been validated by the submitter via email.
- Unknown There is no known information on the serial number format for this game yet. As more submissions are received we can start to make a best guess on the serial number format.
- Good If a serial does not fail any of the tests for a status of Warning or Bad, then it is good.
- Suspect A serial will have a suspect status if the format is technically correct but there is something wrong with the data. Examples might be that the number might be too high or low for the known range of serials for this game.
- Bad If a game has a serial number definition mask defined for it, then a serial may be marked as 'bad' if the number does not validate agains the mask. Masks are created for games by looking at known serial number formats and consist of a regular expression to define the format of a game serial.

SerialBot Scores:
1 Point Awarded if the serial number has a game assigned to it. This autoatically makes submissions with a known game more valuable than submissions without a known game.
1 Point Awarded if the serial number has been 'verified' by the submitter. A submission is 'verifed' if the submitter clicks on the link in the email sent to them for each submission. The basis for this rule is that submissions by people that do not take the time to respond to the email might be entering garbage data and/or giving fake email addresses. However, it is common for 'verification' emails to get stuck in spam filters etc, so, members may have 'verification' emails re-sent at any time.
1 Point Awarded if the submitted serial number matches one of the predefined serial number masks for this game.
1 Point Awarded if the serial number was marked as 'Physically Viewed' during the submission process. This is an interesting distinction as there are many times that serial numbers are submitted off owners lists, Ebay auction, etc. While these serial numbers are valuable, they may also be innacurate. In comparison, Physically Viewed serial number submissions are numbers that the submitter has actually been in front of the machine reading the number and then submitting it. Since it is more likely to get a good visual from a physically viewed machine, this gains an extra point.
1 Point If a photo is uploaded with the serial number submission. The submission automatically gains an additional point. Be aware however that this opens the submission up to 'Nudges' by members where even more points can be added or subtracted based upon the quality and accuracy of the photo.
-3 to +3 Points Members can 'Nudge' every sumitted photo once and give it an extra boost of 1 point or take away 1 point depending if the photo matches the submitted serial number. While any number of members may nudge a serial, the nudging can only affect the score by +/- 3 points in either direction.

The following map shows the locations of all serial numbers that were submitted with a geolocation...