Unidentified Paxton fob – glossy teardrop with purple ring (confirmed non-recorded by Paxton)

Lounge
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently been looking into the history of an old Paxton Access key fob I’ve had for years, and it’s turned out to be a bit of a mystery.

The fob is a teardrop-shaped proximity fob with a glossy black body and a purple plastic ring around the edge. It has no visible numbers, markings, or logos, and it still functions perfectly on a Paxton system at my workplace.

Out of curiosity, I contacted Paxton directly and sent them a photo. Their support team confirmed that:

  • They’ve never produced glossy-finish fobs (only matte).

  • They have no record of ever making purple-ring fobs.

  • They’ve never offered custom-colour keyfobs.

So officially, this version shouldn’t exist!

That makes me think it might be:

  • An early or transitional model before Paxton standardised their matte shells and green/blue/amber rings, or

  • A third-party compatible shell that was used with genuine Paxton chips or programmed for their readers back in the day.

I’d love to know if anyone here has ever come across Paxton fobs with non-standard ring colours or glossy finishes, especially from the early 2000s or earlier.

Photos attached below — I’d really appreciate any insights, memories, or technical thoughts about possible suppliers or chip families used in these older models.

Thanks in advance — I know it’s a small detail, but I find the design and evolution of access control hardware fascinating, and this little purple-ring fob feels like it’s got a story to tell.

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2

this is just an alco washed fob, i’ve got like 4 of these from an installer

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3

When and where and for what system, and are they purple?

4

they’re from a net2 system and yes they’re purple banded

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5

Could you provide me some images for comparison please

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6

theyre in a box somewhere but theyre near identical, shiny with a purple band but my purple is way more dull like the normal “dark blue” purple

if you provide me with the blocks 4 5 6 7 of the memory i can tell you exactly what it belongs to

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7

This is what I mean about the purple, it’s unusual and no one seems to have the identical colour except in my workplace, but my workplace has used these fobs since the early 2000s so unless they are somehow not Paxton but work on the switch 2 system, like a external company has provided these fobs?

8

could be fakes, theyre still just a hitag2 inside. theyre not a paxton SKU from the ordering guide

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9

Well they’re very mysterious to me