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I'm not buying it, all the VIN plates I've seen are hand stamped and the letter spacing is always off a bit. That plate looks to be engraved professionally and then bolted to the firewall from the inside.

A few years ago when I tried to help the man sell the car,
I would always mention the date plate with the name on it, but was always carefull that the man had no documentaon as to the validity of the plate. I just think that it is unique, factual or not. As to whether or not Packard would have engraved it and attached it, I will leave to others, but I hardly think that Packard would have avoided selling a car to old Scarface just because of his reputation. Their business was selling cars not making social commentary.

Although hardly conclusive... not one stamped character on that plate is using the Packard font including the vehicle number.

not one stamped character on that plate is using the Packard font including the vehicle number

I don't think that means anything. I have copies of plates from many 7th series and earlier cars and the vehicle numbers are not done with the Packard font - it's a good question when that began, I'd guess at the 9th series but I'll look further into that. I've never seen the dealer-stamped info (selling dealer, city, date) in Packard's font.

I read a post from you back in 2009 where you indicated that the Packard font was listed in the ATF catalog as early as 1923. I made an assumption (probably incorrect) based on that date. Anyway... disregard my post... I should know better by now than to comment on anything earlier than 1941.

My American Type Founders listing shows Packard (style 348) and Packard Bold (style 453) both listed as of 1923. As I said before it's a really good question as to when Packard began to use that font for their vehicle numbers and I'm going to ask Jim Balfour who has made these VN plates a long-time study. I believe he has examples and photos all the way back to the very first years of Packard.

I'll ammend this post when I get an answer.

In your font book, does it show or mention the script used on the 56 Clippers as was asked by another poster a few days ago?

No, I'd think that was probably either covered by a design patent (DE-XXXX) or a registered trademark but I have no info on that. I do have a listing of all U.S. patents assigned to Packard from 1899 to just prior to the Studebaker debacle, but it does not include design patents and in any case stops sort of 1956. Someday I hope to write an article for The Packard Club on these patents.

My we have gone far afield here; it's often interesting to see where these threads lead us.

My we have gone far afield here; it's often interesting to see where these threads lead us.

So true and one of the reasons a search of the site is sometimes frustrating or fruitless.

But---- For my I'd much rather have the free flowing discussions we have here where info of all kinds comes out in bits and spurts --sometimes totally unrelated to the subject-- rather than some regimented forum where someone may not see a particular topic and therefore not contribute his knowledge.

HH56

Amen brother.

ALK