[rob74]

In Germany (maybe also Austria?), that font is probably best known from the logo of major computer magazine/site CHIP (https://www.chip.de/). Although, for some unfathomable reason, the C in the "dead test font" doesn't have the characteristic "thickening" in the lower vertical part, although the G has it...

[ikari_pl]

This is basically the MICR font: Magnetic Ink (!) Character Recognition. Amazing idea.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recogni...

[scotty79]

The other thing that caught my eye is that M has the thickening on the opposite side to N. I thought it was for easier recognition of similar letters (same with A and R, O and Q), but U and V have the thickening on the same side. Maybe C vs G is the reason why C doesn't have the thickening.

[masswerk]

Regarding the shape of the letter "C", mind that of the 10 digits of the MICR E-18B font, the digits 2, 5, 6, 7, 0 don't have any "thickenings" at all, all thin, even strokes. That's 5 out of 10 or half of the traditional part of the set. So just "C" being similar may be actually an underrepresentation. (Maybe, a "true" MICR inspired font should have actually somewhat more modulation between characters.)

[daneel_w]

And so many variant typefaces of the same graphical language were seen in a million products during the home computer boom of the late 70s and early 80s. Iconic.

[kevin_thibedeau]

It's a copy of the Westminster font from the 60s which was an adaption of the visual style of MICR digits and symbols to a full symbology (without being machine readable). It was a meme for computerbilia of the era that now seems quaint.

[no-name-here]

> computerbilia

Google finds 2 uses of this word - yours, and a ~1985 newsletter. However, its AI was able to guess it’s a combination of computer and memorabilia.

[flohofwoe]

...it's been burned into my brain via the KC85 manuals (sroll down for the covers of various manuals): https://www.mpm-kc85.de/html/d001_kc85_3.htm