It appears to be handlettered. The repeated characters are all unique.

Can you post the original photo that hasn't had the levels pushed to just black and white. We can't really tell from this what the age of the sign is. The irregularities could be because it is hand painted but it might be poorly-cut vinyl, or simply due to extreme adjustment of the photo.

i can't upload the photo. here's a link,
http://www.duckco.com/sandbox/proof/signphoto.jpg

the sign is routed wood or molded resin but my boss took the photo so i haven't physically seen it. all the details of it are relief that've been hand-painted. thanks!

BigBrush19 is the closest i've seen and must be what i was thinking of and what had me convinced that i'd seen the capital L before.
http://www.fonts101.com/fonts/view/Script/9576/BigBrushFont19.aspx