Vtg Stencils US No. 2

The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real-world stencils from various countries. The US No.2 design was drawn from an original one inch Reese's Eureka stencil kit.

The first interlocking stencil kits with a great market success were invented in 1876 (US Patent No. 173 058) by Samuel W. Reese. The kits were marked under the label Reese's Eureka. Later the part Eureka was dropped and the kits were sold under the mark Reese's only. Reese's stencils became very known for many years. Later, the Reeses brand was taken over by C. H. Hanson Co.

Today you can buy lots of used kits on ebay. This design is known till today as Roman, based on the popular 1850s bold Clarendon typeface. The competitors like Carragan, Dunlap, Fletcher, Monce, Stafford, Wards, and many more used the same design. Of course, there are some tiny differences on some letters like R, Q, 5, $, ¢ and & – but the overall impression of the letter and figure designs is the same.

Metall workshops often used steel punches to reproduce these shapes even if they made custom work. So we can say this design is a blueprint of US American stencil history.

For a fitting companien ornament font have a look to Vtg Stencil Ornaments A.

If you need lowercase letters as well, please have a look at the US No.1 font.