That's really interesting.
The Yonakor is typographed for sure. You can see what's called squeezeout on the union logo. The inked type while printing under pressure pushes some ink out to the edges, making what appears like an outline to the printed area. If they used enough pressure there will be indentations in the cardstock. And the halftone is typical for typographed pictures.
The others are probably lithographed.
And the diagonal screen is odd, I tried looking it up, and the first thing I found was a patent from 1895 claiming the diagonal only screen produces poor results.
What's interesting is that it looks like the diagonal screen reproduced the picture much better, but did a terrible job at reproducing the union logo.
I think both are probably ok. (Not totally sure, but close) Because the diagonal screen is finer than the halftone. I'd think that if it was rescreened from an original it would show the halftone pattern. It doesn't, so if it was done as a fake or reprint whoever did it probably had access to the original photos.
Do the book pictures match the PSA cards? Reprints also usually have cropping differences.
How many players in the book? I'm wondering if Yonakor came with the book, or was a promotional item for the set. Something like the book and card available from the station or stores in advance of the set, then the set given out later, maybe one or two a week? That would maybe tie in with another promotion, in-store appearances or something like that. Checking the online newspaper archives might turn up some info, but the post dispatch only has back to 1988 online and all the others are membership things.
Of course, if you're in or near St Louis the library or historical society probably has them on microfilm for free.
Steve B
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