Abu Garcia 5500 C3 Question

[Jarlhen]

Heya folks. I just had a little question. Back in my younger days I was quite the little fisherman, always a big fan of the Abu Garcia Admiral, or maybe it wasn't called Admiral, it was a good reel though, had one of those bows you flip up and down. Yeah, I'm not the most knowledgeable fisherman but I loved it. Anyways, the other day I was going through some of my old things because I wanted to go out and see if I couldn't wrestle down a pike or two. I then found an box containing an Ambassadeur 5500 C3, never been used, original box, the whole thing. I remember I got it becuase we used to have a cafe right by the Abu factory and a lot of the workers came in for lunch back in the day. One of them gave the reel to me when I was younger, right from the assembly line (so to speak).

Now here's really the question. I googled and did some research on the 5500 C3 reels and what struck me was that all the pictures I saw didn't look like mine. Sure same model, but they were all silvery in colour. Mine is black and silver with red and gold letters, it also has a golden "royal supplier" mark instead of a silver one. Is there a reason for that?

Second, there's a bunch of numbers on the underside. One set of numbers have been printed into the metal, another set is on a sticked piece of paper. Is there any way to find out what those numbers mean?

It's not that I'm a massive fisherman buff, but this reel is a little fond memory of mine and I like to know more about it. Not to mention I might try to sell it off, better someone uses it than it lays around here. I remember trying the model once or twice, although it wasn't mine, but I never liked it. Stuck to the one I've dubbed Admiral instead