A few weeks ago I bought a set of type on eBay, hoping it was some old brass type for bookbinding. I didn't pay much for it at all, so it was a bit of a punt, but worth the risk if it turned out to be something good. The listing photos were unclear, it could have been brass or it could have been lead but taken under yellow lighting.

Anyway, this type finally arrived in its hand made wooden box - and I opened the box to find it was just some old lead type. 

So that's the end of the blog post then?

Not quite - there was still something unusual about this type.

It wasn't a full set of letters. There were plenty of numbers, but the letters were oddly made. Rather than being individual letters, they were pairs of two. For example there was "MY", or "JE", or "MR" - there were actually 11 of these odd mixed letter characters.

The type was stamped as made by Figgins, a foundry that existed from 1792 until 1933. This at least gave a terminus post quem and terminus ante quem for the type being made. Some of the type is very worn, so it is either very old or comes from a place where it was regularly used, perhaps even on a daily basis. Figgins are also a very prestigious name in the type foundry world, so their type would have been used by all manner of people and companies.

Glued to the inside of the lid of the box was a clue to what these were - it was a hand written note, faded and water damaged with some of the letters stamped under it. It could be just about interpreted as a note giving different numbers that could be used as a code for different types of passengers.

So was this lead type used in the transport industry? Something like an early bus conductor stamping tickets crossed my mind - but can you imagine setting lead type on a cramped and moving bus? No, that's not likely. What else then? Train stations? Ferries? And what are the double letters for - maybe they were used for different types of tickets, or abbreviations of something to do with transport?

A bit more research suddenly cleared up those mysterious letters - and I realised there was a clear meaning to them when put in the right order:

JA, FE, MR, AP, MY, JE, (one missing), AU, SE, OC, NO, DE.

They were the months of the year - so this lead type must have been used for adding the dates to things, and the clue of "passengers" from the hand written note made it pretty clear these came from an old ticket office where a clerk at a desk would have sold tickets and stamped them with the correct date.

A bit more research brought me to the Wikipedia page for the Edmondson Railway Ticket System, introduced in the 1840s as a way to print tickets. At either end of the ticket would be stamped a date and a number by the clerk when they sold it to show when it was valid and any other specific information.

This image from Dominic Winter Auctions shows a ticket from 15th May 1874 with the date stamped using almost identical type to mine, with the same abbreviation for May.

The mystery of the type then is probably solved - an unusual set of late Victorian type from a railway station! (And certainly not bookbinding tools)