Apple was founded in 1976.
Before Apple got its fame for creating and selling iPhones and iPads, before it became a $3 trillion company, back in its earliest days, the company created the Apple-1 computer.
200 units of this first-ever Apple product were sold, and in 2022, around 82 of them still exist.
And among them, only a few dozens have a handwritten serial number on their motherboard. These units were part of the first 100 batch Apple sold.
For decades, a number of Apple fanatics wondered who wrote those serial numbers.
Nobody had the answer. Even after contacting Apple, fans were left with more questions than answers.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs supposedly said it wasn't him who wrote it. Co-founder Steve Wozniak who designed the motherboard also said he didn't do it. Daniel Kottke, who assembled and tested some of the boards, also denied it.
Other known people who were involved in the making of the motherboards also remained silent.
This was when fans started theorizing, that it was Byte Shop, which had purchased the first 50 Apple-1 computers, was the one that wrote it.
But after contacting its owner, Paul Terrel, he too denied writing anything on the Apple-1 motherboards.
It was Achim Baqué, the creator of the Apple-1 Registry, the database that records every known Apple-1 computer, who was determined to find the answer for this long-standing question. To do this, he flew from Germany to the U.S by bringing two Apple-1 computers with him, and lend them to PSA, a handwriting authentication company dealing mainly in sports cards.
The PSA then began evaluating the each and every samples, and match them with other writing samples, in order to identify various characteristics in the handwriting, including the slant, flow, pen pressure and letter size.
Since each and every serial number was written in black permanent marker, it was not difficult to investigate the samples. The most difficult thing was collecting the samples, since the motherboards with the written serial numbers are extremely rare.
Three months later, the PSA managed to find name of the person whose handwriting was on those boards.
According to the PSA, that delivered the answer to Baqué, it was no other than the late Steve Jobs himself who penned those numbers.
While Jobs never admitted that he wrote them, this time, the secret for why he did it will forever remain unsolved.
It was considered difficult to realize that Jobs was the person who written it, since the Apple co-founder rarely write anything on paper. Even his signature can cost a fortune due to its rarity.
The story was first published on February 10, 2022, during a Zoom meeting on the occasion of the World Computer Day.
The story and ‘Letter of Authenticity’ were published same day.
The Apple-1 is considered among the rarest and the most valuable microcomputer in the world.
As Apple's first-ever desktop computer released in 1976, that ran 1.022,727 MHz CPU and 4K bit of DRAM chips, each and every Apple-1 computer is regarded as a gem.
For example, back in November 9, 2021, someone sold an Apple-1 computer with user manuals and Apple software on two cassette tapes for $500,000.
This is around 10 times the price of the most expensive Mac computer with all addons included.
"Everyone who can’t understand the 'hype‘ around the Apple-1 should consider: No Apple-1 = no Apple II = no Apple company. It is a useless discussion if an item should be worth so much. Only a few exist, many people want it and so the value goes up. That’s the way it is," the Apple-1 Registry website wrote on its announcement.
