I'm smiling 10 fold, as I eat some of my earlier words!
Those Garibaldi cards show me that the image size varies on some cards, I was not aware of that. It reminds me of some of the Colgan's Chips... I think Selby is one of the cards that has a small head version and a large head version.
Still, I'm glad I posted back there; otherwise, I'd not have read "a profusion of confusion." I'll try to add that into my word war chest. Reminds me of a saying I once heard, "I don't know if my thoughts have matured or manured."
So... allowing some difference in height measurments, 2 7/8" is about normal; and I reckon someone wanting a great example would want to the the bottom margin cut where just a bit of the printed cut line was.
I'll get on with eating those words.