olsport,
You've got a common mix-up in terminology there. A "wire photo" is a photo that was actually sent over the news wire and developed by the machinery on the other end. As you said, the caption for a wire photo is typically embedded in the image on the front (actually part of the image). The wire photo on the receiving end is considered a Type 3 photo if it is within the 2-year period, or a Type 4 if it's in a later period. As you said, the wire photo will almost always be of inferior quality to the original, though some still come out very nice.
The original photo on the sending end is not considered a "wire photo," though this is a common mistake. It could be called a "news photo" or "press photo," but the term "wire photo" should be reserved for photos that actually travelled over-the-wire and were produced by the machinery on the receiving end. You could say that all "wire photos" are also "news photos," but all "news photos" are not "wire photos."
The photo on the sending end would typically be a Type 1 or Type 2, and the one on the receiving end would be a Type 3 or Type 4.
Also, by definition, ALL Type 1 and Type 2 photos were printed from the original negative.
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