VW police disk

**Eike41** · 10-17-2013, 06:31 PM

I need feedback on this disk, I like it but the backward "J" makes me nervous, I have seen this on a few different disks and in different font styles. Did the Germans use this character during the war? I don't understand why they would have a backward J stamp.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 10-17-2013 06:31 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Scout** · 10-17-2013, 06:43 PM

by Eike41

I need feedback on this disk, I like it but the backward "J" makes me nervous, I have seen this on a few different disks and in different font styles. Did the Germans use this character during the war? I don't understand why they would have a backward J stamp.

Could the 'backwards' 'J' have been used in lieu of a 'L' maybe.....

**bigmacglenn** · 10-17-2013, 06:46 PM

Scout is correct. In this case, the J is being used as an L...Polizei Verwaltung Wien...Police Administration Vienna...I cannot comment on authenticity, however...not my field of collecting.
cheers, Glenn

**StuG III** · 10-17-2013, 06:54 PM

And how would one stamp the J backwards??

Tom

**Eike41** · 10-17-2013, 06:57 PM

I understand that it is being used as an "L" but why would there be a backwards "J" in a stamp set?

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It appears that they have an upper and lower case version... and no "L"

**Scout** · 10-17-2013, 07:30 PM

Maybe their 'L' just plain looks like that.

**Matt L** · 10-17-2013, 08:05 PM

Exactly- it's just the style of font. Occasionally you see rather stylized ones like this. Notice that the 'i' in 'Wien' also has a curved bottom- consistent with the 'l'. Anyway it looks like a full text stamp- note how straight and even everything is- so there probably aren't separate letters anyway. I don't see anything suspicious about this one- the unique font actually makes it seem more likely to be real since it's memorable and since fakers never make just one unit with a stamp set, it'd surely be a known font if it were fake.

Tom's right too- you can't use stamps 'backwards', only inverted. As a matter of interest, one does sometimes see other letters used for presumably missing stamps- and often they're not even modified to try to make them look like the letter they're trying to indicate. I've seen a 'c' used in place of an 'e', for example, and the stamper didn't even try to put a little horizontal line in to really create an 'e' because the abbreviation was still obvious even with a substitution.