Numbering machines

Just thought I would make mention of a hard to find service these days. I’m putting out the word that I rent, sell, repair, trade numbering machines. I have well over 1500 machines in my inventory. Both backward and forward counting, standard plunger style machines as well as center drive, gothic as well as roman and MICR. Skip 2 to 10, as well as skip 25’s, 20’s, 30’s and so on. Some mirror, as well as some OCR, MOD, and tier machines. All the above machines are standard type high that is .918. Call California time, 559 730-1596. Have many specials, repeats etc., I’ve been working with machines since 1959 and love it.
Thank you Bud.

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2727printer
Good to know
wish you were not clear out in California
I have some Leibinger 13s that need help
Do you have a website or can you email a ratesheet?
Mike H. L&M Graphic Design
Seffner, FL

Dittos!

Too bad you do not have pictures or a site to display some of the types you have

you have 1500+ of these little devils?

After Ultimate Numbering service closed, I was in need of renting some skip machines. Luckily I found Bud who was happy to rent me some. Been renting ever since. He has some clean machines. I agree with Mike H, a rate sheet would help.

Folks might entertained: in 1957 Mr Bob Reed the Composing Room Overseer had by his feet in his little box office a round cake tin with all the numbering boxes kept in.
It was about three inches deep with petrol sloshing about
to clean the boxes which when in use on the press of course fought an endless war between lubrication and printing ink! It was fortunate that smoking was strictly forbidden in the works, so many were users of snuff! He took no nonsense from anybody, least of all the office boy (me)

Hi, 2727,
You say including MICR - MagnetisABLE Ink Charagter Recognition boxes. Are these by any chance UK made,
maybe LEDA brand by Lethaby & Co??. Maybe centre drive? I declare a special interest in this subject.

Hello harrildplaten, No sorry to say, I do not have any of the LEDA brand MICR machines. All of the ones I have are E13B type face as used in the USA. Most of my machines are Leibinger, Alantic, some Wetter and Roberts. We don’t run in to many LEDA machines on this side of the pond. Most but not all of my MICR machines are center drive. I do have 6 or so LEDA center drive machines in a condensed gothic face, they are center drive with 13 wheels with 3 additional spacer wheels. I keep away from the Count brand made in Italy and all of the Chinese machines. I want to thank all who have responded and those who have phoned with their needs. I do have many rotary machines for web presses, as well as machines for GTOs, Multilith, Hamadas, Ryobi, Mona, etc.

Just for the record the first E13b serial numbering machine in the world, and I mean in the world, was designed by Mr. Pat Cockman of Lethabys, whilst sitting in an Italian cafe right at the top of Hatton Garden in London a very log time ago. At that time US cheques had only lithoed still numbers. He really did dismantle a fag packet to draw on the back and I was sitting opposite. The design of the face had to be tweaked to allow for the letterpress ink squeeze. The UK also had its own contender ‘FRED face’ = Figure Readng Electronic Device. ( EMI/Crosfield) and later the French of course had to be different and brought out CMC7. Fred was certainly in type but I think not ever a numbering box, CMC7 did get to boxes and was used here and there.
.

The version I have long known was the the E13B design was developed by the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California under contract to the Bank of America. The design of the numbers and symbols used magnetic ink and so the reader heads measured the amount of magnetic response each character gave, and the design had to be visually legible. My brother worked for SRI at the time, mid-1950s, and later at the printer I worked for, Carlisle Co. in San Francisco, printed the first 4 color checks permitted for Wells Fargo bank, also in San Francisco. The checks date from about 1967. We printed the basic check and check imprinters added the individual account information, including the Micr numbers for each account., often in the early days by letterpress on mostly Miehle Verticals. The computer system Bank of America developed for the magnetic numbers, also by SRI, was named ERMA. High tech firms like SRI were long present in places like Menlo Park long before the recent start ups like Facebook. I left all that to move to the mountains of Colorado in 1970.

Fritz, I feel like we should know each other. I too was in San Francisco at the same time. Worked at Security Lithograph at 200 Broadway, and Schwabacher-Frey at 510 Third St, and 700 Market. Both operations ran large color sheet fed label presses as well as roll to roll litho business form presses. Schwabacher ran ATT MICR checks on a 3 color Hamilton web press 6 around on a 17” cir. press. Checks were 2 5/6 x 14 7/8, ran millions of them. Remember Jim Greer Numbering machine rental service on Market St.? Every large city had a numbering machine service back then. Bud.