Fascinating stuff Jantz.
If I read you right, basically what you are saying is that sheet layout appears to have varied between backs. This would help to explain why this puzzle has been so difficult to piece together.
My Questions:
One
Are there any examples of a player with 3 different names on the top (his own plus two others) that all have the same back? (EX: All three from Piedmont 150-25)
If this exists it would seem to suggest that we may never figure out a true sheet layout because there were too many moving parts even within a print run for a single series of a single ad back in a single factory.
Two
Are there examples of identical two name on top players that are from different ad backs within the same series but from the same factory? (EX: Player A usually has player A above him but less frequently has an identical player B above him for both Piedmont 150-25 and Sweet Cap 150-25)
The existence of this seems plausible to me and would suggest that layout variation occurred between, and not within, factories.
Yet another wrinkle would be changes in layout between series and factory (EX: Pd 150-25 and SC 150-25 share a layout that is different than the shared layout by Pd 350-25 and SC 350-25).
I think that is enough rampant speculation for one post. Particularly because this may all have been covered in old threads (sorry if that is the case!).
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