Some of you have heard all this before......but, to others of you this is new information. In any event, I think this is worth repeating in order to clarify.
In 2005, I became a member of Net54. As in nowadays, the T206's dominated the discussions on this forum. At that time, I had put together 2 "near"
complete sets.....1st, a 521-card (incl. Magie) set.....2nd, a 520-card set.
Furthermore, as a dealer, I had bought, sold, and traded 10's of 1000's of T206 cards (during 1981 - 2005). So, I figured I would offer my "2-cents" to
some of the ongoing Net54 discussions regarding certain aspects of the T206's.....and especially the printing of the T206 set.
It has been (and still is) my contention, that American Lithographic printed T206's, T205's, T213's, and T215's on sheets configured in
columns of 12
cards by
N number of rows of cards down the length of the sheet.
For example, here is my hypothetical 96-card sheet of the 12 subjects I refer to as the "Exclusive 12" in the 460-only series. For more details on these
12 guys, check out this thread......
EXCLUSIVE 12
..v..................................... 19" wide x 24" long sheet .....................................v
I did not "invent" this factor of
12. The structure of the T206 series (and sub-series) speak for themselves. For instance, the first group of T206's
that were printed comprise of
12 subjects; and, we refer to them as the
150-only series. The following lists the structural make-up of the various
T206 series............
Subjects
________
12 ........... 150-only Series
144 ......... 150/350 Series
204 ......... 350-only Series
66 ........... 350/460 Series
48 ........... 460-only Series
48 ........... Southern League Series
It does not require "rocket science" to see that a
factor of 12 is in play here in the formation of these various series. It was not a random process,
it was by design (most likely dictated by the size of the printing press and the size of the standard cardboard sheet).
Also, a common denominator of
6 is a significant factor in the various sub-sets (e.g.
6 Super-Prints,
6 horizontal cards,
6 Texas Leaguer's, etc).
Furthermore, this
12 factor is evident in the T205 structure....e.g. the
12 - Minor League subjects.
And, in the T213-1 issue, where there are
48 - Major League subjects.
In the T215-1 issue which comprises of
96 subjects.
If I have not convinced you of my argument with all this data, then please post your ideas here on how these various tobacco cards were printed,
otherwise.
Pardon me guys, but my engineering mind has a great appreciation for numbers....and so far, I cannot accept any of the explanations that have
been presented in the past (or currently)....as they do not mathematically jive with the established structural numbers of the T206 set.
TED Z
.