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Lot #4001
Steve Jobs Signed 1976 Apple Computer Company Check to Santa Clara Circuits, Linked to the First Apple-1 Boards

A check that helped build the Apple-1: Steve Jobs-signed 1976 Apple Computer Company payment to Santa Clara Circuits

Estimate: $25000+

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Description

A check that helped build the Apple-1: Steve Jobs-signed 1976 Apple Computer Company payment to Santa Clara Circuits

Early Apple Computer Company check, 6 x 3, filled out in type and signed by Jobs, "steven jobs," payable to Santa Clara Circuits for $673.36, July 1, 1976. Headed "Apple Computer Company," the check uses Apple's first official address at "770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto"—the location of the answering service and mail drop that they used while still operating out of the famous Jobs family garage. In very fine condition.

Santa Clara Circuits was a contract printed circuit board manufacturer, believed to have made the first batch of Apple-1 boards that were assembled for delivery to The Byte Shop; these have no manufacturer's logo, while later boards carried the "NTI" logo. Apple-1 Cassette Interface boards do feature an "SCC" logo, likely that of Santa Clara Circuits.

During this period in the summer of 1976, three months after founding the Apple Computer Company, Jobs and Wozniak were hard at work building their first product. Initially conceived as a kit to be soldered together by the end user—like most enthusiast computers of the era—the Apple-1 became a finished product at the behest of Paul Terrell, owner of The Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, one of the first personal computer stores in the world.

Terrell offered to buy 50 of the computers—at a wholesale price of $500 a piece, to retail at $666.66—but only if they came fully assembled. With this request, Terrell aimed to elevate the computer from the domain of the hobbyist/enthusiast to the realm of the mainstream consumer. Wozniak later placed Terrell's purchase order in perspective: 'That was the biggest single episode in all of the company's history. Nothing in subsequent years was so great and so unexpected.'

Thus, the Apple-1 was one of the first completely assembled 'personal' computers that simply worked out of the box with a few accessories that could be purchased from a local electronics store (a power supply, case, keyboard, and monitor were not included). Altogether, over a span of 10 months or so, Jobs and Wozniak produced about 200 Apple-1 computers and sold 175 of them.

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