York Kilo or Kg Plates

[AttyGuy]

They are nice.

[AttyGuy]

Schemansky and Kono. Is that a 25 Kg big letter York Oly plate? H/t Tight Tan Slacks of Deszo Ban.

[AttyGuy]

York milled 25KG Olympic plate.

[AttyGuy]

Were there York Kg plates before the 1970's?

A number of collectors have commented here and elsewhere York KG plates being a 70's and 80's phenomenon. As grounds, they cite to the push in the 70's in the US to go metric, or the international competitions held in the US starting in the early 70's. From what little I've seen of powerlifting contests in the 1970's, Kg plates seemed to be the predominant plates. Of course, international competitions would used Kg plates, most of the world has been on the metric system for a long time. And metric plates would have been used at the Olympics, right? And Bob Hoffman was a US Olympic coach for several Olympics during the mid-20th Century.

So wouldn't there be York KG plates from before the 1970's?




Yes, there were. . . .







Sure looks like a 20-kg on the bar with Norb Schemansky. . . .




Here's Tommy Kono winning the gold in the lightweight division at the 1952 Olympics.




More from the Helsinki Olympics. Again, it looks like deep dish 20-kg plates:

[AttyGuy]

If there were York KG plates from before the 1970's, what would they look like?

We know that before 1967/68, York lathed plates. Only in 1968, or so, with sales of the thinner 45s did York mill plates. I understand that York didn't put numbers on the change plates until the late 50's. At times, prior to the 60's, York did put numbers on the 45s, 35s, and 25s. So, it's possible that any York Kg plates from before the 60's would have no raised numbers on them. But how would they look?

Slumpbuster sent a lone plate several months ago. It was a shiny black plate, with "22 lbs" painted in white on the front of the plate. The edges were crisp and the back was completely lathed. I thought it could be a York kg plate (10 KG), or maybe not. Some time passed.







Then, I got an email from another bb.com member. He had some unmarked plates that looked to be Yorks, only they had Kg weights stenciled on them. Some plates were lathed, in front or on the back. Here is how that set of plates, from Michigan, along with a 15-kg plate from a YBBC member, looked:




It wasn't until I got an email from yet another YBBC member, with an attached picture, that I had confidence in my suspicion that these were York plates. Here is the second set of plates (third, if you include Slumpbuster's plate):



This set of plates was found in New Jersey. Many of these plates are lathed on the back, and most, if not all, are lathed on the front. So, to recap, metric plates that look like pre-60's York plates, with lathing marks, were found in Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey.

[AttyGuy]

But, are these plates York plates? Every (or nearly every) pre-60's York plate had stamped onto its face a number corresponding with the weight of the plate. These do not. To date, no one has seen an advertisement for York metric plates from before the 1970's, nor has a catalog shown up listing metric plates. But are they York? And if they aren't then what do pre-60's York metric plates look like?

[AttyGuy]

Thre 25kg Oly plates from York.