Description

To maximize the chance your signs will arrive before Christmas, please order before December 5! Massachusetts Turnpike route marker. Up for sale today is this Massachusetts Turnpike highway sign. Made to the exact state standard as devised in 1957 for the first generation of Mass Pike signs—complete with the infamous arrow-through-hat design that was replaced in the mid-1980s. The stories vary as to why the original design went away: one version of the tale says that someone got offended by the idea of violence presented by the image of the hat with an arrow through it. The far less interesting version says that it wasn't intuitive that the arrow meant the direction one had to turn to access the highway. (Left-handed versions of this route marker exist as well!) An original of these is very very rare to find scrapped. Most of them have vanished from the back roads of Massachusetts many years ago, replaced with the modern issue. I definitely do not know any of them left in active service for the last few decades. So here is your chance to own an excellent display piece, without paying an arm and a leg on the collector's market. The sign is 12 by 9 inches, and weighs 2 lb. 15 oz. This is a high quality, heavy steel sign. Accept no imitations that may be one-third this price, but are one-tenth the quality. No cheap tin to be found here, with the wrong fonts, layouts, size, shape, or any other manner of embarrassing imperfection. This one will make even the most discerning collector stick their nose into the sign, as it looks that good from that close! Please do see my other auctions for quality Massachusetts Interstate and US route markers! I can of course make these signs not just in this style, but older and newer ones, and even the classic mileage, direction, and city limit guide signs from the era. Anything you would like, made with unsurpassed quality right here in the good old US of A. "Life doesn't happen along the interstates. It's against the law." —Charles Kuralt Figure about 4 lb. 15 oz. for shipping, packed carefully and mailed from zip code 61833. Our signs are only printed when you buy them. Allow about 10 business days for manufacturing, in addition to the usual delivery time. The watermark and bear logo in the design preview will not appear on the actual sign. We have begun adding a watermark because we have had problems with other companies copying our artwork to make lesser-quality imitations. You will only get this high level of quality in design and materials from Signs by Jake. Thank you for your purchase!