[Dajjal]

When I was a kid, one of our typewriters did not have a zero (and was manufactured that way by a major brand — I cannot remember which one). To type a zero you had to use the capital “O”. If there were typewriters like that in Detroit in the 1950-60s, I assume there were typewriters like that in Africa, too.

[Dajjal]

When I was a kid, one of our typewriters did not have a zero

I meant to type "When I was a kid, one of our typewriters in our house did not have a zero...."

[Richard Kimball]

It was common, especially in the days of manual typewriters for there not to be a 1 or a 0. The 1 was made by a small L and the 0 was made by a capital O. I knew several people who continued to use these after later model typewriters started putting 1s and 0s on the keyboards. The typewriter used for the Zero BC was a manual. It's obvious because the letters have different intensities, indicating some were struck by stronger fingers than others. In electrics, all letters have the same intensity.

I have no idea whether it's a forgery or not, but if it is, it's a lot better job than that joke Dan Rather tried to put out there.