Vintage Zippo Lighters

George Blaisdell founded Zippo in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1932, redesigning a cumbersome Austrian lighter into a windproof, hinged case backed by a lifetime guarantee that still stands today. During World War II, Zippo shifted all production to a black crackle finish for the US military, and those wartime pieces remain among the most prized by collectors. The bottom stamp date code, introduced in the mid-1950s, uses letters A through L for the month and a two-digit year, allowing collectors to pinpoint the exact manufacture date of almost any vintage Zippo.