In 1929 the US Post Office began issuing postage stamps overprinted with the words "Kans." and "Nebr." to crack down on the sale of stamps stolen from the states of Kansas and Nebraska. (Apparently there were a lot of post office robberies in those areas at the time, and authorities believed the robbers were likely to cross state lines after nabbing the goods. By marking the stamps as definitively originating in Kansas or Nebraska, postal authorities made them more easily traceable outside those states and thus less valuable to the robbers).
I'm wondering if anyone here happens to know the name of the serif font used on this series of stamps, or knows of any font I could download that very closely resembles it. I've looked up these stamps in various philatelic guides, but the only mention I've located of that typeface merely points out that counterfeiters attempted to use old typewriters to simulate the (electrotype plate–printed) overprint, but that typewriters from that era often left small unintended punctures in the paper. (Who knew postage stamp thievery and counterfeiting to be such a popular enterprise?!)
For that matter, does anyone know of a good font, program, or add-on to simulate the uneven inking of old-style overprinting? I'm attempting to create a very manual effect in an entirely digital format, though so far every digital attempt at manual I've seen looks pretty hokey, so I'm wondering if I'll just have to bite the bullet and locate a typewriter or manually-inking stamp for the text that I'll then scan in afterwards. (It's for a book of poems, not for counterfeiting or postal thievery, I swear!) :)
Any ideas or helpful leads you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
