It’s so weird you mention this, I’ve been looking at picking up a 4004 myself and was just looking at these last night.

For me personally, I have no way of testing a 4004. Just like I can’t test any of the other very early intel chips I have.

I look for the seller history. That particular one, the seller has good feedback and sells a lot of similar things. Odds are it’s legit. The plastic case 4004s were manufactured through the early 80s like that one so the other picture of the bottom with the date code lines up.

For me, since I can’t test it or X-ray it I’d have to go on the sellers word. They’ve been around for 20+ years with 100% positive feedback so to me the only risk is they have a counterfeit one and they don’t know it.

Possible but slim and at the end of the day, for me, it’s $130-$150 bucks and I’ll take my chances. The white ceramic I’d love to have but I can’t justify the cost. The rarity of those and much more difficulty faking it is accounted in the $$$$ on them.

gbeirn wrote on 2021-01-29, 03:05:

For me personally, I have no way of testing a 4004. Just like I can’t test any of the other very early intel chips I have.

It seems that people already took the time to address this issue and built a test circuit for the 4004.
http://www.cpushack.com/mcs-4-test-boards-for-sale/
It's a a must-have when you want the ceramic version. 😁