Scroll down to "Gibson-made Serial Number, 1961 to 1969, all instruments (non "A" series)". As you'll read in the header,there was some weird stuff going on with the serial numbers of that time period. Very confusing.
Unfortunately, the "553" in your number doesn't fit into any of the listed year ranges. You can also try this site. Be sure to put in all the relevant info.
If you don't get an exact year, then the pot code will have to suffice as the production year. Not sure what the value is. You have dig around the net and see if you can find asking prices on any for sale or prices on some that have been sold. Best way to gage value is to try to find what people are actually paying in the real world at the present time rather then what it says in some blue book. I'll look around and see if I can find anything. If I find anything relevant,I'll post it.
Edit- Couldn't find any actual selling prices,but here's some listed for sale.
There's a few of them on this site. These are vibrato equipped,so if yours doesn't have one,the value would be less. Also,you have to compare the conditon of yours.
Here's another one,a hard tail.
Statistics: Posted by Spud1950 — Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:13 pm
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