If upside down, could be either an alternate ampersand or the number eight...

Thanks for your feedback. Here is the full font proof that we printed. I don't think its an alternate 8 because all the figures are pretty uniform but an alternate ampersand maybe.

Yeah, I would say alternate ampersand.

Can you give me more info about this typeface, such as a name and what era it's from? Looks a little Art Nouveau-y!

Very interesting U!

(and, yes, I too think it's an alternate &, but not upside-down. Z, on the other hand, appears to be upside-down)

http://typophile.com/node/80991

hhp

If I were writing that shape calligraphically, it would be the same movement as S.

Thanks all. Unfortunately we don't have much background on the font. It's from England and probably dates to around late 1800's/early 1900's. We are working with other wood type gurus to try and identify it.

riccard0 - You are correct, don't know how I didn't notice that. Thanks!

I agree that it's upside down, on the basis that this is a "high-waisted" face.
Can we see some sample words/numbers, with "S", "&" and "8"?

horizontally-flipped ampersand . may be..

I still think that, if indeed it’s an ampersand, it isn’t rotated nor flipped (the latter would be difficult with wood pieces ;-)
I can see it based on a design like this one:

Seeing it as it is, it did not make sense as an ampersand, so I thought it would have to be turned upside down.

But when I actually look at it upside down, it looks like an 8 or an S, even though it would not be consistent with the typeface as an alternate form of either, and not at all like an ampersand.

So at this point, I'm very unsure that there is an answer. Perhaps it's merely a decorative flourish, and not a symbol at all.

I agree with Riccardo. It’s correctly printed.

I believe it is a dollar sign.

I think Igor's got it...

I believe it is ugly and failed, whatever it is. And I think I got it.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions. I agree that its not an 8 or S and probably not an &. Also flipping it horizontally would not be conventional in wood type. Originally I was wondering if it was a glyph I did not know about but maybe it's from another font and just got misplaced with this one.

This is a variant ampersand. I've seen this form before, and if you look at the construction you'll see that it follows the most common & form, only with the leg curled back to re-join the abbreviated lower left loop: this is a quickly written form, made with a single movement starting in the lower middle and moving up to the right.

Coincidentally, during the type crit session at TypeCon on Sunday, Matthew Carter advised against a kind of swash numeral 8 that a designer had made on the grounds that it could easily be confused with this form of ampersand.