US Scott 1615cd Precancel Types

Here's a small collection of Scott 1615Cd Precancels. Can anyone explain why a different font and spacing was used on the Los Angeles, CA Bureau Precancel as compared to that of the other cities shown?

If I was to hazard a guess I'd say it may have been a different machine maybe? In short I do not know either. :(

HOWEVER- Possibly the answer lies here? http://tx4.us/navigat.htm

LA is a bigger city, deserves a bigger font? Just kidding of course. Are all of these Bureau precancels or could the LA one have been overprinted locally?

Peter

Wt1, I checked it against the first Transportation Coil that was precanceled, Scott 1906a. It looks almost like the Type A overprint used on the 17 cent Electric Auto!

Peter

The LA pre cancel uses the Linofilm 8pt type which replaced the Ludlow type in the others in June 1976. So presumably after June 26th a new coil plate was created for LA and hence used the new type whereas the plates for the others were created before this date.

The Los Angeles Bureau precancel is PSS type 87; the others are PSS type 81 (except the last one). There is a type 81 Los Angeles Bureau precancel, but it was applied to some earlier issues (Prominent Americans). I noticed in the PSS Bureau Precancel catalog that Los Angeles is the only large city that had both precancel types applied (not even New York or Chicago).

According to the PSS catalog, storage of older precancel rubber plates was becoming a problem at the G.P.O., so all the older precancel Masters were to be destroyed (type 81 is included in this group). They created new precancel Masters using a new typeface (which the PSS assigned as type 87). The change in font was to prevent the build up of ink in some of the letters. This transition occurred around 1976-1977.

And, indeed, the font and spacing is identical to one of the precancel types used on the 17c Electric Auto.

Regards, Robert

Thanks for all of the info. An interesting study in a modern precancel I never much noticed before.