Signed Applesoft ROM Chips - photo 1
Signed Applesoft ROM Chips - photo 2

Signed Applesoft ROM Chips

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$ 37 800
Auction dateClassic
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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Archive
ID 1032716
Lot 64 | Signed Applesoft ROM Chips
Steven Paul JOBS (1955-2011). Typed letter to a fan, Cupertino, 16 November 1983. [With:] Applesoft ROM Chip signed ("Steve Jobs") on white label affixed to the top, and the chip affixed to the center bottom of the typed letter. [Also with:] WOZNIAK, Steve (b. 1950) Applesoft ROM Chip signed ("Woz") on a white label affixed to the top.

One page, 278 x 216mm on Apple Computer Inc. letterhead with ROM chip (6 x 30 x 4mm) with pins pushed through the paper and bent inwards on verso and reinforced with clear tape on recto (light toning). Housed in a mat and affixed with tape at corners on verso. "Woz" chip: 6 x 30 x 6mm.

"Keep the faith!" (Steve Jobs)

Steve Jobs signs an Apple II ROM chip for an early Apple fan. The recipient (and consignor), who had learned to program on an Apple II was eagerly awaiting the debut of the new Macintosh computers, had written to Jobs to that effect adding that "Apple products have truly changed society for good and made my personal and professional life much more productive. … Keep up the good work!" He also requested that Jobs send him "an autographed integrated circuit chip and I'll hang it on my wall." Several weeks later, the consignor received the present letter from Jobs who had taken the time not only to sign a chip, but to affix it to the letter by bending the pins inwards on the verso. (Letter from consignor) Jobs thanked the recipient "for letting us know of your support. It's really great to know that our fans up in the bleachers are cheering for us. Keep the faith!" Below his typed signature, he adds a short postscript: "Hope you enjoy the chip--an Applesoft ROM," drawing an arrow from where his handwritten signature would have been placed toward the signed chip. True to his word, the recipient hung it on his wall for many years, adding some clear tape to the chip fearing that the weight of the chip would eventually tear the paper when hung vertically.

Rare. Jobs was notoriously reluctant to sign autographs despite numerous appeals, making the present signed chip a notable exception to his rule. Twenty years later, the consignor also found another Applesoft ROM chip to send to Steve Wozniak to sign—a request to which the Apple co-founder readily obliged, making this most likely to be the only pair of Apple II integrated circuits signed by Jobs and Wozniak extant. A superb association piece linking the founders of one of the most valuable companies in the world with its first mass-market success.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
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