One of the most common questions in Matchbox collecting is why the range keeps changing its number. The familiar “Matchbox 1-75” of the classic era became 1-100, then 1-120, and today the annual mainline is numbered 1-125. The answer is simpler than the folklore suggests: the top number is just the size of the range that year. The classic 1-75 era (1953-1999) For most of the 20th century, Matchbox released exactly 75 models a year, each numbered on its base. Lesney started the tradition in 1953, and a model held its number for life — which is why a No. 19 MGA from 1962 is still “No. 19” in collector…