Obak Question

[rp12367]

As I had stated in an early post I have started to work on a set of 1910 Obaks. I have been actively searching and purchasing for the past few weeks. My question is, I have noticed that it appears that a good amount of these cards out there have a stamped back. I was wondering if any one knows why. Almost all the stamps tend to be in purple ink and range from stamped numbers to just stray shapes and marks,not to many names. I know it was common for people to stamp there name or initials back then, but alot of these make no sense. Are these all from same collector/hoard or was it just some purple stamp craze or something...

[caramelcard]

Hi Ralph,

We've talked a bit about it over the years here so you could search the board for old threads if it's helpful.

Although collector stamps are common like "Gilliam Squires" which is found on a lot of Obaks, these are not collector stamps. The purple number stamps are period and were applied at the factory. Maybe for sorting. Maybe for inspection before leaving. Not sure really, but they're common and found on other Bay Area issues that probably used the same lithographer.

Some appear to be weird shapes, but I think it's the same numbers that were stamped too fast over stamped over another number.

Maybe other folks have concrete evidence of why they were stamped...

Rob