Halo Stem Variation 2 - Feet and Patents

Well there are many dating methods used in the world such as radiocarbon and dendrochronology to name a few, pez collectors have the simple method of looking at the patent number on the side of the dispenser: the lower the number, the older the piece.  That combined with the offcial pez website which will tell you the dates of the patent numbers as well as what year a dispenser was released will narrow the gap to a relatively small window, packaging can also provide some additional clues.

Halos can be found on both 3,9's and 4,6's patented stems. What is also cool is that you can find these with no feet, thin feet and footed (or thick feet).

3 Pluto's all on 3,9 stems one non-footed two with thin feet.
 

Closer look

 

Note that the non-footed stems on halo's are rather difficult to find, to date I have only seen these in the Disney and Merry Music Maker series.

 

Below we have two Penguins from the Merry Music Makers, on the left is a 3,9 thin footed dispenser and on the right we have a 4,6 thick footed dispenser.  These are also in chronological order.

 

One obstical you will encounter is that when the dispenser is side facing you may not be able to see the patent number, that is, without extracting it.

So in addition to unique colours, you can also look for the patent numbers 3,9 & 4.6 as well as footed, non-footed and thin footed. Hmmm ... a person can really get carried away with this...