Hi Craig and Graig
Thanks for all the info! We are finally getting down to the gist of my question.
But I am seeing conflicting thoughts/theories/info from the both of you.
Graig says " definitely not '51!" and Craig says "and what I can see of his body all shout 1951.
Support for 1952 comes from a Type I print with a 1952 date stamp (which if I remember correctly was from October supporting Graig's contention)"
Graig: GREAT info on the patches extending into the WS in 51 and not 52. Dating with the ads will really help. Looking forward to it, but enjoy your vacation until then!
Craig:
You go on to say " one definitive way to date the photo would be some hard evidence as to when the 1951 Wheaties series was created - Feb, March, April of '51 or after September 1952?"
This is actually what I am trying to ascertain. IF the photo is from the 52 World Series then the Wheaties set can not be from 1951, but rather has to be later. Of course even if the photo is from 1951 does not mean the Wheaties set was issued in 1951 or even 1952 for that matter. It could have been issued any year later! This goes back to my argument of why Wheaties would include Mantle in a 1951 set. More on this an comparing other players in the set can be found in the postwar section discussion found here:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=175675
where one of the issues is, it is dated circa 1955 in the Getty archives!
I hope one of you EXPERTS will be able to come up with a definitive answer on when the photo was taken, and we will be able to answer at least if the set was issued in 1951 or not. Then the question is, is it a Wheaties issue and we start all over again!! :>)
Thanks again for all your help/research/thoughts!
Fred