None of these handcut pieces, whether on thick or thin stock should be considered "proofs". All are cut from varying advertising pieces. Sporting Life had a very aggressive marketing campaign for most of the early 1900's marketing their cabinet cards and pocket publications and later their venture into the baseball "card" world with the M116's.
A true proof based on various other known issues such as T206 & T3, would have the "crosshairs" for alignment on all four sides and no text at the bottom. I have never seen an actual M116 "proof", nor one for many other mainstream sets. These would not have been available to the general public in any way. Most of the printers scrap and the few known proofs of the many tobacco and caramel card issues are from items carried home by employees, much like the plethora of sheets, ad cards and printers scrap that Topps and Bowman employees toted out in the 1950's.
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