Vintage A1 w/A2 collar? Or early A2 with buttons? What is this...?

[AeroFan_07]

Yesturday I was visiting a town an hour or so away and went into one of those cool "vintage" shops, you know the ones that only seem to have records, soda machines and maybe a mid '70's Graius leather jacket. Well that was not the case here.

They only had one leather jacket and it's the one photographed below. I am not even a realy "A2" fan and this one will never be able to be worn by me (like 20" pit to pit). But somehow I realized this is very old, this has a lot of history, it is not perfect, it is not a reproduction, and it needs to be documented as to what it is.

So what is it? It appears to have an A2 collar, however A1 style buttons (3 of which still appear to be original). The pockets are snap-down without any type of handwarmer addition. The collar snaps down. The lining has been removed. The knit cuff aong the bottom hem of the jacket appears newer than the sleeves cuffs and is a bit more reddish in color, suggesting at one time it was replaced. It has wear, a few small holes and patina to nearly match the rest of the jacket. There is a partial name-tag still left stating "P. J. AM..." There is blue thread still holding that portion of the name-tag in place. There are no inside tags.



Then I noticed I could see the inside of the snaps that hold the collar down, since the lning has been removed. These state: "RAUF. CO - PROV. R. I." So I take it this is the RAU Fastener Company in Providence, Rhode Island.



The lining to the button-reciever flap displays what may have been similar to the orignial "olive green" lining material. There is also a small scrap of this left on the inside around the bottom hem, and at the name badge loaction, at the Left-chest area.



More details on the next post...

 

[AeroFan_07]

Found something else in this jacket....

Even better, this jacket tells a lot of stories, both more recent as well as from 80+ years back. In the Left Hand pocket there was a flight ticket with a name "Randall Boe" written on one side. A bit confused by the date of it. There in an advertisement for a credit card for 1982-1983, but the front of the ticket shows just "06 April" with no year. And there are three coins in the pocket, which appear to be from 1977 & 1978. The passenger flew into Chicago (CHI). I would really appreciate if anyone could identify where the coins are from as well. I am guessing it was in the early to mid 1980's and this all remained in the jacket.



And both side of the three coins:



Thanks for any input - insights here!!

 

[handymike]

This is so cool!

 

[Kubatu]

Found something else in this jacket....

Even better, this jacket tells a lot of stories, both more recent as well as from 80+ years back. In the Left Hand pocket there was a flight ticket with a name "Randall Boe" written on one side. A bit confused by the date of it. There in an advertisement for a credit card for 1982-1983, but the front of the ticket shows just "06 April" with no year. And there are three coins in the pocket, which appear to be from 1977 & 1978. The passenger flew into Chicago (CHI). I would really appreciate if anyone could identify where the coins are from as well. I am guessing it was in the early to mid 1980's and this all remained in the jacket.

View attachment 334406 View attachment 334407 View attachment 334403

And both side of the three coins:

View attachment 334404 View attachment 334405

Thanks for any input - insights here!!

Those are all Swedish coins, circulating as early as 1962 to as late as 1981. This site has information on each specific coin:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1502.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1516.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1513.html

 

[Carlos840]

That's cool!
The coins are from Sweden, the Airplane ticket is Sabena, which was the Belgian airline up until 2001.
We used to joke the anagram was short for "Such A Bad Experience, Never Again"
THat jacket has been around the world and back.

 

[AeroFan_07]

Hey folks, thanks for the follow up so far...

Those are all Swedish coins, circulating as early as 1962 to as late as 1981. This site has information on each specific coin:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1502.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1516.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1513.html

I will certainly check this out, appreciate the links provided...

That's cool!
The coins are from Sweden, the Airplane ticket is Sabena, which was the Belgian airline up until 2001.
We used to joke the anagram was short for "Such A Bad Experience, Never Again"
THat jacket has been around the world and back.

I have to wonder if that may have been this passenger's experance on the flight as well!!

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Keep it nice like it is!! Now that's my kind of Jacket!!! Nice!

 

[dudewuttheheck]

Very interesting jacket. I am FAR from an expert. It looks to me like an A2 with buttons, but I have no idea why it's like that.

 

[Boyo]

my $0.2 -the side panels suggest to me its an older Avirex jacket, around the 1980's ( 40 + years ago now) probably Horsehide. The original zipper was replaced with buttons either because the previous owner wanted it that way or it was an easier fix wherever he was at the time.

 

[AeroFan_07]

^^ Appreciate the thoughts here, and the flight ticket may have simply been dropped into this along with the coins. However that ticket from the early '80's is still in excellent shape, whereas the jacket has clearly seen a large amount of use. I tend to think this jacket was hung up shortly after the wearer arrived here from Europe, and simply forgotten about after that. It also has a very deep, multiple layers of "smell" as well. Sorry, that sounds a little gross.