Qualifying this post (again) with fact that I have a mere fraction of the T206 knowledge many others have on this board, I have some thoughts. However, first let my qualify my comments -- I want this card to be real, and if it is, I would love to own it!
Old Mills and Polar Bears had different print groups, which makes an ink-switch error unlikely. Thus, even though the blue in the Powell Old Mill looks "PBish", it is unlikely a case of failing to switch the ink after Polar Bears into Old Mills.
Contrast that with the Brown Old Mill. The Brown OM, I believe, has the same print group as the Brown Hindu -- the southern league. This makes the forgetting-to-switch-the-ink (from Hindu to OM) more (indeed very) plausible in the case of brown old mills. Then take the facts that (i) the brown in the hindu is very close to the brown in brown OM, (ii) all brown OMs are hand-cut, printers scrap, which never made it into cigarette packs - meaning the printer likely realized the mistake immediately cut up the cards, fixed the ink and moved on, and (iii) there are 10-20 known examples of Brown OMs and rarely a duplicate, meaning that likely only 1-2 sheets made it through the printing process. Based on these facts, the theory looks extremely sound that Brown OMs are real and were the product of a printing/ink error between Hindu and Old Mill on Southern Leaguers.
Can we assemble a similar chain here between the blue old mill and some other blue-backed T206? It must be Piedmont, because we seem to have ruled out Polar Bear and it cant be UZIT (and tolstoi and Carolina Brights are black, no?). Were Powell and Walsh in the same print group and is it likely, or at least possible, that they were on the same sheet? Why was the Walsh blue old mill not hand cut, like the Brown Old Mills? What is the story of the Brown Lenox, which also were not hand cut, and we can use them as anecdotal evidence in this case?
Obviously having a TPG look hard at the card to inspect its authenticity is key (and I think SGC is totally the way to go here over PSA). But TPGs make mistakes all the time (PSA more so with T206 than SGC), and so it would be great to come up with a plausible theory behind how blue old mills could even exist in the first place.
We know that a purported T206 Evers Yellow Sky Brown Hindu is fake. We know thus because we know he was printed in the Red Hindu and there are no fronts with both red and brown hindus. So we know for a fact that I really sound-looking, "i held it in my hand and it looked real", Evers Yellow Sky Brown Hindu is a fake, because that card does not come in brown hindu. In the case of the Blue Old Mills, can we put together a plausible case that explains how it is possible that both Walsh and Powell could have a blue old mill back?
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