CALIFORNIA EMBOSSING VARIETIES

In the January issue, Crown Jewels contained an article by Mike McGuire about a different embossing style on CALIFORNIA CD 208 insulators. He described observing a variety where the letters "OR" were smaller than the surrounding letters. Several collectors responded to the article by reporting they have that variety in their collections. Here are two of the responses we received:

Upon reading Mike McGuire's report of the CD 208 CALIFORNIA embossings, I found myself running to my shelf of purple glass to see if I might possibly have the third variety. Sure enough, there was one. The unit was retrieved many, many years ago while on a hunt in the mid 1970's with Andy and Vi Brown in the Stampede Pass, Washington area. This area produced a couple of CD 211 Brookfield No Leak D's, several CD 208's Cals, a numerous CD 141 "hot cross straightups".

My above mentioned CD 208 Cal was found by mistake. Not by digging, but from thirst for some of that good ol' high mountain stream water at the bottom of a deep canyon. There just a few feet from where I drank, lay this beautiful CD 208 right at the bottom edge of the creek. Guess the old saying holds true, "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be!"

Dave Moffatt

Howard, 
Last year at the Cayucos and Tulare shows, Dave Brown had a smoky purple California crosstop with the third embossing style mentioned in the January 2004 CJ. At first we thought it had an enlarged "NIA", but after additional examination we decided it was really a shorter height "OR". Dave acquired it in a collection offered at a Montana estate auction.

I have not seen any other embossing variations in the CALIFORNIA CD 208'S other than the large and small embossings described in McDougald's price guides. There are some embossing variations in the CALIFORNIA CD 121, CD 166 & CD 187's. However, I have never seen an embossing ,error or blot out across the range of CALIFORNIA CD's. I have also seen many fine CALIFORNIA collections, but no other collectors have ever pointed out any embossing errors or blot outs.

Maybe I haven't seen enough CALIFORNIA's yet :-) 

Colin Jung

Crown Jewels is still interested in hearing where in the state of California CD 208's might have been found. If you have an answer, we'd like to hear. We know they were found on Stampede Pass, Washington. And I have personally found them near Canyonville, OR; Lovelock, NV and Wendover, UT. But what about California?

Howard Banks