United States Pencil Co.
United States Pencil Co., an American pencil company —
USCO 486 varieties:
USCO Electro 486, a “transitional species” between USCO Grafine Lead 486 and USCO Electro 100:
USCO Electro 100:
Three different expressions for 2-1/2:
The only other place I’ve seen 2-5/10 is on Ticonderogas.
Nearly identical Evergreen copying pencils made in Czechoslovakia and in USA:
An older ad showing that the Czech versions were actually made by L & C Hardtmuth:
I have seen an ad indicating that Our Drummer is also from U.S. Pencil Co. —
Swan USA
Some of the major German pencil companies had subsidiaries in the United States. The Swan Pencil Co., based in New York, was a subsidiary of Schwan. Swan produced several brands —
Othello and Fortuna are major Schwan brands.
Tiger 440 may be original to Swan —
As evidenced by the wartime plastic and cardboard ferrules, Swan continued to produce and sell pencils during WWII.
General
General Pencil Company brands. Others are in the Bowling and Red|Blue posts —
Kimberly 525 varieties:
Semi-Hex 498:
There’s a newer one with green lettering. I typically don’t have new varieties.
These blue colored pencils all have numbers ending in 3:
Product Number Variation
Occasionally the product number associated with a particular brand of pencil will change with time, such as when Dixon’s Ticonderoga 1386 became 1388. Usually this change is accompanied by an update in design. But here are a couple of pairs for which only the number is different:
I suspect that for these, the product number printed on the pencil depended on the manner in which it was sold, for example individually or in a packaged set.
Beginners
Dixon Beginners 308 is another example of a brand that lasted many decades, over which time there were several variations but no major changes —
What’s up with the green one? It looks like its competitor, the Venus Scribbler.
Lo-Well
Lo-Well was one of many pencil companies that were once headquartered in New York City. Their main brand was Tech, varieties of which are shown here:
They also had an original series of pencils that appears to have been marketed for various professions –
I wonder how popular these were. Did liquor store owners really prefer to use The Liquor Pencil? Did priests covet The Clergyman’s Pencil?
Eagle Simplex
Eagle Pencil Company produced a wide variety of writing instruments. One was an interesting mechanical pencil named Simplex. It was cheap and came in several styles.
The Simplex has a patented, simple mechanism –
As the metal cylinder is screwed along the outside of the wooden body, a rod pushes the lead forward.
But there is also an older type of Simplex pencil that is completely different –
The lead is exposed by tearing off pieces of material around it. This is similar to Blaisdell’s paper pencils, which were patented a year earlier (1895).
A. W. Faber Castell 9000 Varieties
Not 9000 varieties, but still a lot. This famous brand began in 1905 and continues to this day. These are from before 1993, when the A.W. was removed.
- Click for larger image
I have others too: without paint, variations of the back side, minor variations in lettering, and an anniversary edition.
Fred's Pencils 
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