T206 Bob Ewing small "w"

[iwantitiwinit]

I don't know/remember this ever being discussed before but has anyone else noticed that some T206 Bob Ewing cards show his name printed two different ways? Specifically it appears as if there was something covering a portion of the "w" or that a smaller "w" type font was used on some cards. Here is a link to one with this variation (it almost appears as if a smaller "w" was used"):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1909-T206-169-Bob-Ewing-VG-EX-F559-/400857940051?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d54fec053

and here is a regular one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1909-T206-BOB-EWING-Great-Color-Eye-Appeal-Piedmont-Back-VG-Shape-/321144610209?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac5b5dda1

Any thoughts? If you look at several of his cards it almost looks as if there are different degrees to which the "w"is blocked. The first example above is one of the smallest I've seen.

Is there any premium to the smaller "w"?

[Leon]

maybe something got on the printing plate?

[frankbmd]

You always get less for your dollar from Dean's cards.;)

[xplainer]

Looks to me like something was on the plate too.
Not just a small W, but the I, N, G, and the comma are cut off.
Seems to be at an angle from low right to higher left, if that makes sense.

Maybe a small scrap of paper?

[Sean]

maybe something got on the printing plate?

+1

The "W" appears to be the same size, but something blocked it (and the IN) from printing properly.

[steve B]

There are a few cards that show stuff like this.

I believe it's a flaw in either the transfers that were probably used to lay out the plate, or the transfer not getting transferred completely.

It should be on about 1/6 or 1/8 series 150 Ewings if one set of plates were used, fewer if multiple sets of plates were used.


Steve B

[iwantitiwinit]

I don't know if its paper on the plate blocking some of the print type because it seems to be on too many of the cards. I've been looking at all the Ewing's that have come up for sale and it seems that about 1 in 5 have a portion of the letters blocked. Could the type set have been chipped? Since I just bought one of these and now that it's pointed out do you think there is any premium (selfish motives not withstanding)?

[insccollectibles]

You always get less for your dollar from Dean's cards.;)

this made me laugh a lot. anyone know how to exclude sellers from your ebay feed?

[Pat R]

Ewing has a few interesting printing flaws. I checked 201 Ewing scans ( some
were definitely the same cards I'm guessing 160-175 were different cards) the
ones with part of the letters missing on the bottom of the name all have a
bump in the top border but I also found some missing part of the top border
and some with part of the top border filled in.

At first I thought they might have fixed the name and the top border on this
particular plate but I think the bump is a little to far to the left for this to
be the case but it does appear that the plate missing part of the top border
was filled in and the backs found with these two flaws are in the right printing
timeframe for this fix.


These are the flaws I found.

Missing part of the letters and bump in border -7 total
SC 649 - 3
PD 159 - 2
SC 150/25 -2

Missing Part of top border- 4 total
SC 150/30 - 1
SC 649 - 2
Hindu - 1


Gap filled in on top border - 9
PD 150 - 8
PD - 350 - 1

[iwantitiwinit]

Nice work

[2dueces]

I'm constantly amazed at how close we examine these cards. It's absolutely mind boggling at times. Not that there is anything wrong with it but can you see the printer 100 years ago. The machines are reeling by printing at 60 miles an hour. These are fillers for tobacco packs. It's not like they were printing US currency. I'm sure some quality control was in place but I'm sure he didn't care if a hair got in between a sheet and a plate or a piece of paper stuck for a few thousand sheets. Or a tiny scatch developed on the back side of the card plate. I think he'd have a really good chuckle reading this board picking every flaw. I'm sure he'd say, no one will care about that tiny flaw 100 years from now.

[steve B]

I'm constantly amazed at how close we examine these cards. It's absolutely mind boggling at times. Not that there is anything wrong with it but can you see the printer 100 years ago. The machines are reeling by printing at 60 miles an hour. These are fillers for tobacco packs. It's not like they were printing US currency. I'm sure some quality control was in place but I'm sure he didn't care if a hair got in between a sheet and a plate or a piece of paper stuck for a few thousand sheets. Or a tiny scatch developed on the back side of the card plate. I think he'd have a really good chuckle reading this board picking every flaw. I'm sure he'd say, no one will care about that tiny flaw 100 years from now.

That's an excellent point, and exactly why those flaws are there for us to look at. The printing company did the job as required, and minor flaws were acceptable. The plate scratch is anything but tiny, and probably led to that P150 plate being redone or replaced. Oddly, the old reason claimed for Plank being rare is that the plate broke so thy had to stop printing them. There's a few other potential reasons that Ted has written about, but a heavily damaged back plate happening right when something else happened could have made pulling the card much easier. OR the stories got reversed between Wagner and Plank, Or.............Isn't it at least a bit fun considering what if?


And they weren't anything the hobby cared much about until recently when a few people got to trying to figure out the details like how many were on a sheet. I'm sure most collectors still don't care. It's that way in many hobbies.

When it becomes sort of dull for collectors is when specialization and getting into the details happens. As much of a monster as it is, T206 isn't that hard a set at the level of getting 520 - Set less the 4 expensive ones. So collectors move on to back runs, getting picky about condition, collecting just one back, varieties, stuff like that.
Will it become a solid part of the hobby like it is with Stamps and coins? Maybe maybe not. For sure not every collector of those things gets into the varieties. Will a few of us keep on looking for the tiny details? Yeah, that probably won't go away anytime soon.
I'm on the fence myself as to whether any of these varieties should command a premium. Part of me says yes, especially if some can be proven to be much tougher than others*. Part of me says no. In practice there should be an equal number of each since each one came from only one spot on the sheet.
So Ewing with the cutoff name should be just one of roughly 8 (Maybe more) very slightly different Ewings or any particular back. And most of the differences are very minor.

*Since the Wagner was pulled, the plates would have been replaced or reworked if it was from stones. So in theory there will be X cards with unique front flaws that are equal to the Wagner in difficulty. And they're all hiding out there, mostly as commons.

Steve B

[steve B]

Very Nice Pat!

The bump is most likely a remnant of the layout marks used to make sure the transfers were in the right spots on the plate. And the gap is from the platemaker overdoing erasing the mark.

The repair looks like it might be exactly that, someone realized there was a gap and drew it in by hand. Very easy on metal plates and not all that tough on a stone either.

There's a few other tiny things. The elbow nearest the left border has two marks to make the creases in the uniform, and on only the one with the worse corners in the last pic or two the longer mark goes all the way across the elbow. If it's factory, it may go with a particular back. One of those really small differences that to me indicate multiple printings with minor art changes in between.

Steve B