This alphabet saw most of its use between the late 1960s through the mid 1970s. It did not see widespread usage and is very rare to see on memorials in the cemetery.
History & Designer
The Condensed Block alphabet was designed by Anthony Gaspari, who designed all of the PALL Canada plastic die cutting alphabets.
A very strange alphabet, the “Condensed Block” is a duplicate of the PALL Canada Vermarco, with the exception of 7 letters and one number (M, N, O, U, V, W, Y, and zero), which have been given a style similar to a thinner Common Gothic. Why Gaspari felt the need to create this alphabet with only these specific characters modified is unknown, though there has been a long history of memorialists who have found it necessary to modify certain characters of the original Spacerite Vermarco by hand.
The alphabet contained the standard plastic die cutting alphabet punctuation (dashes, periods and commas) and an ampersand; all other punctuation and extra characters have been created by using other monument industry Vermarcos as a guide.