Posted By:
Ted ZanidakisAdam W.
Myths are funny things, usually applied to some ancient Greek
warriors and their exploits. Troy (and the Trojan Horse) were
an outstanding example of a Myth. Until Heinrich Schliemann
defied all odds and discovered Troy approx. 150 years ago and
confirmed a lot of Homer's writings. Nevertheless, this story
is still considered a "myth" by many.
So, I do not understand your criticism of my use of this word
to describe the "broken plate" theory, which has been passed
thru several generations of hobbyist in order to explain why
certain cards are rare.
I'm certainly no expert on printing processes (although I did
have 2 yrs. of Print Class in HS), but I do know that multiple
plates are created in the process of printing. Did you read my
above post where there were multiple plates of the Ted Williams
image in the 1954 Bowman "find" ?
To produce color printing takes at least 4 stages, it is somewhat
of a time consuming process. To mass produce BB cards printers
must create multiple impressions of a given image (multiple plates)
to efficiently do the job and get product out to the market.
Finally, the strip you referred to with Wagner is just a horizontal
strip. The T206's were printed in sheet form (i.e., rows and columns)
My contention (based on information I gleaned back in the early 1980's)
was that Plank was adjacent to Wagner in a column. And, it does not
take much imagination to see how Plank could have been discarded along
with Wagner.