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I found a six-bead soroban at a local second-hand store (Value Village in Fairbanks):
I am wondering if this model might be an antique. There is a statement on the Soroban wikipedia page (accessed Nov 8 2021) that six-bead sorobans were produced before the 1930s, which if that were exclusively true, this product would be over ninety years old. I am doubtful, however, as (1) the Wikipedia page provided no supporting reference, and (2) the product looks in very good condition, unlike most things that are over ninety years old, and (3) there is a sticker on the side, in good condition and not peeling off, which is the number 1,000,000 in our arabic numbers. But perhaps it is a few decades old, anyway...?
I am only familiar with five-bead Soroban technique, but it seems easy enough to just pretend that the bottom bead does not exist.
A friend of mine, who was a missionary in Japan for many years, told me that the right-most symbol on the front refers to the Japanese "yen", a currency unit. The symbols which follow to the left are the numbers 10, 100, 1000, etc. up to 1,000,000.
There are some words on the back, but he said that the phrase did not make sense to him. Perhaps it is a brand name?:
reverse side of six-bead soroban
If anybody can give me more information about this product, please e-mail me:
Alaskalinuxuser, 2021-11-09
Well, not sure about the writing, but it is really cool that you know how to use one!
