I was lucky enough to find a "New listing", buy it now Jigmaster on E-bay. It is a real deep, dark burgundy with round posts and chromed bronze spool. Absolutely perfect in all respects. The seller said that it had never been fished and I would say that it had never even had line on it. I stuck it in a glass display cabinet with some old Pentax cameras and Campagnolo bike parts.
Anyone care to speculate on it's age? My other Jigmaster is an "S" version with a solid double crossbar and no cutouts. The other Jigmasters that I have seen all have the double crossbar with relief cutouts depending on it's being a 500 or 501. Do I have a collectable that I don't want to "spoil"?
Maybe I should check E-bay for more Jigmasters.
Oh, it has a white handle.
They started making that model in the late 70's. Discontinued production in the late 80's.
Pretty Common. I have a few.