Did some old IC’s come with solder on their leads/pins?

[[Chrille]]

I have acquired some old TTL IC’s (New Old Stock) and on some of them they have solder on their leads (not all brands or series). Most of the time they do not have any solder on them like you would expect from a new IC. They look new/unused and the leads have the original angle/bend so they don’t look used otherwise.

So the question is: Did some manufacturers apply solder to their brand new factory IC’s? We are talking very late 70’s/early 80’s 74xx TTL chips.

[indeterminate]

Pre tinned leads where fairly common

[coromonadalix]

photos would be nice ...   yes there was  pre-tinned ones,  but evenly put,   not blob  when you desolder / salvage ic's  or unless you solder wick them

[Stray Electron]

Pre tinned leads where fairly common

  Tin plated yes, solder no!  What you have are probably what are called "solder pulls".  Those are used chips that are unsoldered from a circuit board vs "socket pulls" which are used ICs that are taken from sockets.  Both types are very common in the surplus/ used IC market. 

   If you want to be certain, then look up the manufacturer's data sheet for the part.  I THINK a few manufacturers offered pre (solder) tinned parts but I have used probably over 100,000 ICs of that vintage and I've never seen a pre-soldered part. 

[wraper]

Tin plated yes, solder no!  What you have are probably what are called "solder pulls".  Those are used chips that are unsoldered from a circuit board vs "socket pulls" which are used ICs that are taken from sockets.  Both types are very common in the surplus/ used IC market.

You speak bollocks. For TH parts factory tinned terminals are almost as common as tin plated. More so on older parts. Currently it became way less common for DIP ICs but still very widespread for other parts.

[wraper]

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