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davidcycleBarry, I agree with you that the Old Judges were mass produced commercial items and many may have started off light or otherwise off. They were making loads of these photo cards, and I'm sure their production standards were far from perfect. The T206s, as a more modern example, come with all sorts of production errors-- off colors, misprints, ghosts, etc. Sometimes you wonder if the T206 printing factory was next to a saloon. Though the natural aging no doubt contributes greatly to the Old Judge images.
I don't know, but it's a good guess that the pink dye prevented the pink Old Judges from developing well when they were originally made.