D304 102
 

Does anyone know what the 102 stands for on the back of the D304 Brunners Bread and Butter Krust cards, or why it's circled on the Brunners cards but not the Butter Krust? I don't believe the 102 appears on any of the other backs.
Perhaps it's a factory number . . .

Apparently no one knows :).

Here are ones from my previous collection (Sadly, I only own the Rucker now)....but this is a decent back comparison.

Now that 102 is really bugging me.

Leon, that Frank Chance was an absolute beauty. I'm pretty sure your Martens Cobb is that same card I have. It may be my favorite card.

Love that someone actually wrote D304 Brunners on the Rucker.

I could only find speculation in a previous thread:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=2163994

Nice thread digging Bryan. The article (from 3/12/1912) in post # 8 of the thread you linked mentions a Columbia Typographical Union No. 101 that had an issue with the General Baking Company regarding their potential use of non-union printers on some posters, etc. and was discussed at a union meeting to take further actions against the General Baking Company if the allegations were proven to be true.

1912 is the likely production date of of both the Brunners Bread and Butter Krust back cards (I was actually working on presenting some info about this shortly), and my guess is that the General Baking Company included the '102' on the backs of those cards to indicate that these cards were printed by a union printer (102, which I assume is a different printer's union branch), perhaps as a result of the investigation by Union 101 about this other matter.


Brian

Wow, this is great information guys. I'm grateful to see those ads even putting aside my question.

Thanks Bryan and Brian.

Perhaps the circled 102 is a real union shop and the uncircled 102 is a scab outfit!

That was an informative old thread. I would lean toward the number being a factory number....Definitely not sure though. I suspect that someday there will be a smoking gun for the "102"

I checked into whether a Typographical (printer) Union, local 102 existed, and it did, in Ottawa Canada. Perhaps as a result of the labor issue previously mentioned, General Baking Company reached across the border to get these cards printed...

Perhaps a little bit of a stretch. Like Leon mentioned, maybe it is the factory number.

Brian