[Abravefan11]

Ted - Your questions alone show that you and I are essentially speaking two different languages concerning how the T206 set was produced. If we can not agree on the basic foundations of the set, then discussing almost any other aspect of the set is an exercise in futility. With that said I will do my best to answer your questions.

Lets start with these questions.

1st....the Jennings (portrait) card contradicts your "thought", as it was printed ONLY with a PIEDMONT 150 back (NO SOVEREIGN 150 back....NO SWEET CAPORAL
150 back....NO HINDU back). This lone PIEDMONT 150 card of Jennings does not jive with your "SOVEREIGN 150 hypothesis".

2nd....the Crawford (throwing) card was printed with the PIEDMONT 150 back and the SWEET CAPORAL 150 backs....but, NO HINDU or SOVEREIGN 150 backs. The
logical timeline here regarding the Crawford & Jennings cards suggests to us that American Litho. printed the HINDU and SOVEREIGN (150 series) cards subsequent
to the PIEDMONT and SWEET CAP cards.

The way your presenting my opinion with your concepts of the set is not accurate. Your presenting the timeline of the printing of each back brand as if it only happened once during the series. So if a card is possible with a Piedmont 150 back than it must have been printed in the first offering of the set. We don't believe that this was true for all backs. We do believe that Sovereign was only produced during the early part of the 150 Series and was not printed again later. We do believe that Hindu was only printed at the end of the 150 Series and not in the early offerings. But we do believe that Piedmont and Sweet Caporal were printed more than one time throughout the 150 Series.

So a subject like Crawford could have been absent from the initial offering of Piedmont, Sovereign and Sweet Caporal, but still have been printed later in the 150 Series with Sweet Caporal and Piedmont backs.

The same situations apply to the Jennings card. In both cases you are asking for an explanation for why they're absent in the Hindu set. That's a great question? Why did ATC/ALC not print a large portion of the available subjects with Hindu backs? They definitely intended to print them with Hindu, just as they intended to print all 48 southern league subjects, but they didn't. The advertisements clearly state 150 Subjects, yet they only printed 102. These two subjects aren't unique in being excluded from that offering, a 1/3 of the major-league subjects didn't get printed with this back. So the fact that they aren't found with a Hindu back has no bearing on this issue. (IMO)

Furthermore, your claim that Wagner & Plank were printed subsequent to the SOVEREIGN 150 cards, absolutely makes NO logical sense....for, if this was so, Wagner
and Plank would exist with SOVEREIGN 150 backs. What is your timeline for the SOVEREIGN 150 printing ?

As I stated before we believe that the initial offering of cards in the early summer of 1909 were only the original 150 subjects. Wagner and Plank were not part of this printing. If they had been they would have been printed with a Sovereign 150 back. We believe when they were first added to the set they were included with a Sweet Caporal offering for factories 25 and 30. After that when they began to print them with a Piedmont back they were removed prior to being distributed.

Earlier in this thread I discussed how Sweet Caporal and Piedmont are extremely complicated to decipher because unlike Sovereign and Hindu they weren't offered for a limited time. During the 350 Series Piedmont adds ran once a week from February to August advertising that baseball cards were included in each pack. I don't believe this lengthy distribution was accomplished with a single production of Piedmont backed cards, but rather repeated printings of this back throughout the series. We believe the same holds true for the 150 series.

You appear to be stuck on (or perhaps, carried away) with the fact that the exact number of 150-subjects in the SOVEREIGN 150 press run is something "magic".
And, if I understand you....Are you really saying that the printing of the SOVEREIGN 150 cards preceded the printing of the PIEDMONT 150 & SWEET CAPORAL
150 (Factory 25 & 30) cards ?

I hope I've cleared up the printing of the various backs so you'll understand I'm not saying that the Sovereign set proceeded Piedmont and Sweet Caporal. I am saying that I believe that additional printings of Piedmont and Sweet Caporal followed the Sovereign printing.

And, several of us would like to know what T206 backs are on this COLLAGE that you referred to ?

If anything that I've said has made sense up to this point, you'll know the answer to this question.

I hope this clears up any of the confusion about what I believe.