Help decoding a J.C. Higgins frame number on a vintage cruiser
4656 is the model number.  It's also the order number in the catalog.  There are books for sale on Ebay that show the bicycle pages from the Sears catalogs that cover Elgin, JC Higgins, and Sears bikes from the early 30's through the mid 60's.  Each page tells the year from which the pages are taken. Match the number on the bike to the cataolg number and you can figure out the year and style.  The 502 is Murray Bicycle's code for the bikes they built for Sears.  The last six numbers are the bikes individual unique serial number.