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Vintage Fender Guitar Rubber Date Stamp Typeface

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micpoc

Hello! I am attempting to identify the typeface used by the Fender guitar company in the 1960s to stamp dates on their guitar necks. I believe they MAY have used more than one in the 60s—even in the same stamp—but most appear to be similar. I am particularly interested in the 1964 examples below, but have included other examples, as it may assist in identifying it. Any insight will be greatly appreciated; thanks!

1665330291_JAGNECK1OCT64b.jpg.710500e16d5788bc27280f78e9ae95bc.jpg1054272672_2OCT64B.png.90294000392ac1d72c2d8ccacef16b2a.png

1831575245_8OCT64A.thumb.jpg.bde324f4e73383d988029e5d95f3dd32.jpg16jan66b.jpg.7946089cb20ec27e48187b9d8ad5d068.jpg

 Fender-Jaguar-How-Old_837083e8-22f5-4d05-a602-b3fc40f006be.thumb.jpg.426fec8adb2b71034d8fcf6430955346.jpg65_fen_jaguar-wht_8.thumb.jpg.3ef3b8870ba78c168327f88d41581e8b.jpg

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Ralf Herrmann

I doubt it can be identified by a name. Named typefaces in the past were usually letterpress fonts made for print shops. But as you already mentioned, this is a special use with something like a rubber stamp system. It might not exist outside of this world. It might even be custom and only exist in Fender’s factories. After all, this can also be seen as a security feature and Fender might not have wanted to use a commercial rubber stamp system that anyone has access to. 

Of course it wouldn’t hurt to check the catalogs of rubber stamp systems of that time, but here on this website we are more experts for print/graphic design fonts. 

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micpoc
4 hours ago, Ralf Herrmann said:

I doubt it can be identified by a name. Named typefaces in the past were usually letterpress fonts made for print shops. But as you already mentioned, this is a special use with something like a rubber stamp system. It might not exist outside of this world. It might even be custom and only exist in Fender’s factories. After all, this can also be seen as a security feature and Fender might not have wanted to use a commercial rubber stamp system that anyone has access to. 

Of course it wouldn’t hurt to check the catalogs of rubber stamp systems of that time, but here on this website we are more experts for print/graphic design fonts. 

Gotcha; thanks.

 

I have found some that are very similar—the "B" resembles the bold version of Academico, for example—but nothing for all of them. The fourth picture shows two distinctly different versions of "6", and it mixes serif and sans serif styles. The notoriously spendthrift Leo Fender probably didn't invest in a custom system, but that does not mean it will be any easier to identify; I'll keep plugging away at it.

 

That tall "T" in the first picture for October seems like a real anomaly.

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MissNobody

It looks like three maybe even four different sets thrown together, in a pattern:

11 222 33 4 (set 1=day, set 2=month, set 3=year, set 4=A/B). The nearest fonts I can find for these:

 

1Newspoint (regular condensed)

2Davish (medium)

3Consort (bold condensed)

4 - serif looks to be 3, sans serif might be 2.

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micpoc
2 hours ago, MissNobody said:

It looks like three maybe even four different sets thrown together, in a pattern:

11 222 33 4 (set 1=day, set 2=month, set 3=year, set 4=A/B). The nearest fonts I can find for these:

 

1Newspoint (regular condensed)

2Davish (medium)

3Consort (bold condensed)

4 - serif looks to be 3, sans serif might be 2.

Thanks, MissNobody! Those look pretty close to spot on. I am guessing these are fairly modern fonts, but they look pretty close. 

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