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Claim 1

An illuminated sign structure, comprising a housing having an opaque frame and a translucent front panel within said frame; a source of light mounted in said housing; a plurality of substantially parallel ribs mounted on the outer surface of said front panel and extending across said panel in equally spaced relationship, said ribs each having, in cross section, a stem portion protruding outwardly from said panel and lateral flanges extending in opposite directions from said stem portion, said flanges being spaced from said outer surface and having opaque front surfaces; a plurality of elongated strips each having a width no greater than the distance between said stem portions of adjacent ones of said ribs and a thickness no greater than the spacing between said outer surface and said flanges such that each of said strips can be inserted between adjacent ones of said ribs, at least some of said strips having opaque and translucent regions defining alphanumeric characters; and a plurality of picture display units, each said unit having end walls, upper and lower spaced, generally parallel side walls, and a front panel, the rear of each said unit being substantially open, said front panel of each unit having translucent portions forming a pictorial representation of an object, each of said upper and lower side walls having means at the rear edges thereof defining outwardly extending hook members shaped to engage flanges which extend toward each other on two of said ribs, said side walls of said picture display units being spaced apart by different distances, each said distance being substantially equal to an integral multiple of the center-to-center distance between said ribs; whereby a plurality of said strips and picture display units can be mounted on said frame front panel to occupy substantially all of the area within said frame to permit passage of light only through said translucent regions of said strips and translucent portions of said display units.