[paul]

The W590 set has always been a bit of a mystery. The Standard Catalog lists the cards as being issued from 1925-1931, and the grading companies label the cards the same way. However, I believe that most collectors who have spent any time with this set agree that the cards were not issued continuously from 1925 through 1931. Instead, they were issued in two distinct printings: a first printing in 1925 and a second printing in 1931.

You can verify this by looking at the captions of the players who switched teams between 1925 and 1931. Grover Cleveland Alexander is a perfect example. Alexander was with the Cubs in 1925 and has a W590 card that lists him with the Cubs. Alexander began pitching for the House of David team in 1931, and he has a W590 card that lists him with the House of David. Alexander pitched for the Cardinals from 1926-1929, but he has no W590 card listing him as a Cardinal. From this, it seems reasonable to conclude that the W590s were issued only in 1925 and 1931, and not in the years in between.

Another example is Tris Speaker. His more common W590 card lists him as a Cleveland Indian, where he played in 1925. Speaker has no W590 listing him with the Senators where he played in 1927 or the A's where he played in 1928. But he does have a W590 listing him with Newark, where he was a player manager in 1929 and 1930. This again suggests that no W590s were issued in 1927 or 1928. Speaker's listing with Newark might suggest a 1929 or 1930 date for the second printing, but that is not possible because Alexander did not begin playing with the House of David until 1931. So the second printing was almost certainly issued in 1931, and Speaker is mistakenly listed as the manager of Newark, rather than being very recently retired.

That still leaves the mystery of figuring out whether a particular card was issued in 1925 or 1931. For players that switched teams in that time frame, it's easy. But to my knowledge, no one has previously explained (at least publicly) how to distinguish a 1925 W590 from a 1931 W590 for players that were on the same team in 1925 and 1931. This has been particularly frustrating for rookie card collectors. Lou Gehrig's 1925 W590 is his rookie card, but collectors have been unable to determine whether a particular W590 Gehrig is from 1925 or 1931.

However, by looking closely at cards known to be from 1925 and cards known to be from 1931, it becomes clear that there is a subtle but noticeable difference. Look below at my 1925 Speaker (Cleveland) and my 1931 Speaker (Newark). In the 1925 card, Speaker's name appears in a distinctly bolder font than the 1931 card, which has a much thinner font, with letters that appear a little taller (though that may be an optical illusion). The same is true of the 1925 Collins (White Sox) and 1931 Collins (A's coach). The same is also true of the 1925 Alexander (Cubs) and the 1931 Alexander (House of David).

I know there is a collector on this board who has completed a W590 master set with all team variations (or maybe he's one card short). I'd be very grateful if he would review his collection and confirm or refute my "font" theory. But just from this small sample, it seems reasonable to conclude that the cards with the bolder font are all from 1925, and the cards with the thinner font are all from 1931. So if you have a bold font W590 Gehrig, you have his true rookie card. If you have a thin font W590 Gehrig, you don't have his rookie, but you have a true rarity because the 1931 cards are remarkably scarce compared to the 1925s.