Posted By:
HWScott,
I believe the Lipset article that you spoke about had to do with a restorer named Tom Faith. He used to mark his cards on the reverse with a dot in one of the corners. I believe that Lipset auctioned off some of these cards at one time. The restoration work was totally disclosed.
I have seen some of these cards in person and they are fairly easy to tell to the trained eye. They look very good, but under close inspection it is fairly obvious. The easiest way to tell on the cards that I saw was to look at the edges. The consistency or texture of the edges would change dramatically toward the corner.
I think that UV lights pick up certain types of restoration, but not all.
I hope that all of you have a happy and safe New Year.