A case for the VNB

A question was brought up as to whether the Vespa 125 VNB I got recently might be a made-over Allstate. If you aren't familiar, the American department store chain Sears sold Vespa (and Cushman) scooters under the brand name Allstate from 1948 to 1966. You can still find these scooters here and there. The reader pointed out that the square speedometer was different from other Vespa models at the time. I did some research and made the following case:

A. The black and white pic is from the book "How to Restore and Maintain your Vespa". It says the 125s got the square speedo. The color pic is mine from this morning. Looks exactly the same as the one in the book.

B. Look at the rivet holes for the Vespa badge. No welded over Allstate badge holes that I can see.

C. The VIN is VNB4T * which according to this page: http://www.scooterhelp.com/serial/ves.frame.serial.numbers.html makes it a 1963 Vespa 125 (VNB). The same page lists the 1963 Allstate VIN as VA12T*.

I point all of this out to show the various means to verify the model and year of an old scooter like this. Now I need to get the cables attached so I can go ride it.

Thanks to Sean Lynch for pointing me down this path.