Dating Old Telephone Numbers

I have a few wooden coathangers that must be well over 50 years old. Two of them have the following phone numbers on them:

Handy Cleaners & Dyers

1823 So. Main St. Westmore 2369

Underwood's Depend-On-Us Cleaners Compton 1361

The first one uses the two letters in place of the numbers but instead of 5 digits, it has only four. That means it must be fairly old.

The second one uses the city name and four digits. This seems to indicate that it was from the days when a caller had to talk to an operator instead of using the dial on the telephone. I'm thinking that this was well before WW2, maybe 1920s.

I got on this website and they say that to date telephone numbers, contact a history museum, or look in old phone books at the local library.

Any one have some further comment on a date range? Thanks.

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Posted 5 years ago by Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun, th in Telecom Technical

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