Here's what we say about the Sovereign 350 - Apple Green on our website:
During the production of groups 1 and 2, the Sovereign 350 back was printed in a forest green color. The later printing of group 3 with the same back was printed in an apple green color. This subtle color change clearly defines which subjects are in group 2 and which are in group 3. Only three of the group 3 subjects cannot be found with an apple green Sovereign 350 back. The Joe Doyle (N.Y. Nat'l) error, which was corrected prior to the Sovereign print run, and the later team changes for Red Kleinow (Boston) and Frank Smith (Chicago & Boston), which took place after the Sovereign printing.
This may seem a little confusing if you don't understand the print groups referenced, but once you have a firm understanding of them the production of the T206 set becomes much easier to understand.
Comparing the Sovereign 350-Forest Green to Sovereign 350-Apple Green, the major difference is in the number of subjects printed within each subset. The forest green Sovereign have a better than 3:1 ratio to subjects printed with apple green. If they were printed in relatively similar numbers, it's logical more forest will come to market than apple. In general terms one subject from either back will not be more scarce than from the other.
Big kudos to Art Martineau and Jim Rivera for noticing this color difference and it's relevance.
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