I have been told this is a Gold Ring Dagor. I have seen other terms such as golden rim, gold rim, gold dot, and probably some others. How can I be sure which it is? There also seems to be a wide diversity of prices depending on the model. Where does this one fall? http://www.pipeline.com/~mswj/Dagor.jpg

Thank you for your collective genius.

-- Mandell Winter, Jr (mswj@pipeline.com), May 14, 2002

Answers

I believe gold rim, golden rim, or just Golden Dagor all refer to the same style lens - any Dagor where the entire from ring is polished brass. The Gold Dot is a different style - the front rim is black and there is a gold dot painted on the lens front next to the Dagor name. It is reputed to be a somewhat different lens then the Golden; different glass or coating or something. I always thought the Gold Dots came after the Goldens, but your lens has a serial number of 815,xxx, and the one Gold Dot I own is #814,xxx. As far as the value, your lens is a barrel mount (it doesn't have a shutter). This will make the value much less than the same lens mounted in shutter. You can search on eBay "Completed Auctions" to get an idea what Goldens are selling for. Barrel mount Dagors do turn up on eBay, but they are much less common than shutter-mounted. The lens is well worth having mounted in a shutter, but the cost will likely be $300-400 to have it done right. See http://www.skgrimes.com/ for more information.

-- Leonard Robertson (leonard@harrington-wa.com), May 16, 2002.