The SB Finalist was copied after the Medalist patent drag. If you want the year, add 22 years (18 years plus 4-year war extension) to 1938 - bingo, 1960. They gave it two brake shoes instead of just one, though I doubt if that made a difference on anything short of stopping UPS trucks.
I raised the date question on ORCA, and if I get good info there, will copy it here.
If you happen to have a SB rod in the same traditional SB color, can't beat the match.
ok, not quite the same reel, this is the SB 1185 perfect clone, only made in 1935 - I bet Hardy protested this one.
like a Hardy perfect, this red-anodized reel and its black-anodized Shakespeare twin, the 1900 Steelhead & Trout model HF, had an exposed spool back plate for finger-and-thumb drag.
The reels were re-introduced one year later (Model HE) with a back plate covering the spool, and a panic-button felt drag. The reel was not made again after the war.
And as I opened this, I believe your SB Finalist was introduced in 1960 with the expiration of the Medalist drag patent (if it was introduced before that, litigious Pflueger would have taken them to court and won). If I hear more, will post again...