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Posted By: davidcycleback

Fair to assume the handcut ones are printer's scraps. Scraps usually have front printing problems, ala bad registration, ghosts, color issues. Perhaps when the entire print run was finished, blank backs were considered the boo boo and not cut up into final cards. In the middle of the print run you could stick the sheet back in the printer, but when printing was finished they scrapped it as unfinished. There was no point in factory cutting up and sticking into packs tobacco adverts with no tobacco advertising. Most scraps have backs.

I would assume the factory cut blank backs are worth more. But with an oversized handcut scrap you can be confident the card has never met a paper cutter.

Excluding proofs, the vast majority of vintage handcut T206s with significant printing problems are scraps. While most problems are on the front, a blank back counts as a printing mistake as all cards are supposed to have tobacco ads on the back.