Q: I’m looking for information on an old Western Electric candlestick phone I have. It has a peg dial system. The brass dial on the base has two rows of holes and two rows of numbers from one to 100. There is a peg on a chain. We’re looking at selling it but have no idea what it’s worth.

 

A: Western Electric made peg dialer telephones from 1902 to 1904. These phones were useful in towns that didn’t have enough households with telephones to have an operator on duty 24 hours a day. The holes in the dial could be pegged to connect up to 100 lines. They weren’t practical after more people got telephones. These phones are very rare. One that included the switching apparatus sold for over $10,000 a few years ago. If you plan to sell your phone you should contact auction houses that have sold vintage phones in the past.