Schwinn produced the Varsity as far back as the early 1950′s. Feeling an obligation to at least try to keep people riding bikes past their teenage years, Schwinn made adult bikes for a nearly nonexistant U.S. Market during the bicycle bust decades of the 1940′s, ’50′s, and 60′s.
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Begins a very old thread on serial numbers, which are, in reality, a model code, EE, etcetera, followed by a sequence number, usually four or five digits. Adobe gamma loader what is. (I obtained the table from a source believed to be reliable, but I have not checked that table with Monarch).
From the sequence number, one can tell within a few weeks of when Monarch's production control department committed to making a particular machine. The sequence number may or may not indicate when a machine was finished, as it is a sequence number assigned when the manufacture of a particular lathe order was accepted. The serial number plate affixed to the frame indicates a lot of interesting facts, sometimes including the value of the machine, and often the actual date of completion. The number stamped between the Vee and Flat way, at the right end of the machine, will always indicate the model and the sequence number. Given those two facts, Monarch can, within reason, respond to questions about and requests for prints and parts. Of course, this doesn't account for bed changes, but that's to be expected. There are bound to be apparent exceptions, particularly on so-called 'War Baby' machines, as some of those were scheduled as dozens or even hundreds of otherwise identical machines at the beginning of a period, with individual examples coming out of Monarch's erection floor when they were ready for shipment.
And, in those times of particular economic and political stress, world-wide, parts remaining from otherwise old stock may have been used on a new machine, which accounts for the crossover in 12.0' and 12.5' EEs and the various versions of M-Gs, DC Panels, and WiaDs. The official changeover from Ward-Leonard System to WiaD was 1949, but customer demand kept the W-LS machines rolling off the production line a LOT longer than Monarch had anticipated. What you sacrifice with the W-LS is efficiency. What you gain is customer familiarity with these systems as all kinds of elevators and hoists (and equivalent devices in a naval setting) also used the WL-S.
What you sacrifice with an electronic drive is serviceability, unless the customers are specially trained. What you gain with an electronic drive is efficiency (almost no power consumption when idling, and, obviously, no M-G noise). A competent radio technician could fix a WiaD, but an M-G repairer should know a little about rotating power amplifiers. Oh, yes, the navy used Amplidyne®-based systems, which are like WL-S, but with a very much higher amplification factor. The B-29 (defensive) fire-control systems were all Amplidyne-based. Probably a lot of naval fire-control systems, too. It takes a lot of amplification to move a turret with three 18' guns.