I enjoyed this article very much, very interesting.
It’s been said the grille of the Shand Morino does not determine its age, from my own perspective i don’t think this, I’ve never ever seen a two or three bar with mop buttons.
The four that arrived at Jimmy Shands Home in 1951, were burgundy and slightly thicker in sound, than the commercial Shand Morino as we know it.
Around 1953/4 there came the Burgandy Morino's,( 20 of which were Hohner Morino’s with smaller bass buttons ) the rest were badged Shand Morino.
1955 saw slightly larger red Shand Morino’s made of lighter laminated wood, around 56 came black Shand Morino's slightly smaller in framework.
All these had mother of Pearl buttons & bass.
The first two bars appeared in 57/8 and by that time the mop was substituted for plastic keyboard buttons & bass.
1958/9 saw around possibly fifty forty keys with no bass couplers, then perhaps several hundred with bass couplers.
1962/3 saw the three bar 46 key Morinos, slightly bulkier with heavier wood, thicker sounding.
Around 1966 came the models with bellow pins, very soft in tone and fairly heavy.
Excelsior was subcontracted by Hohner to make the last models from 1970- 1975.
All in all I believe most were very good accordions.
