A New Date for the Pathe Freres Babe Ruth: 1920 -- UPDATE: PSA NOW AGREES!

[Jobu]

PSA Update in post 10.


PSA and SGC have long graded the Pathe Freres Babe Ruth as a 1921 issue, but it is, in fact, from 1920. This is significant as it is his first year with the Yankees and, of all the cards that share that distinction, this is by far the nicest. (I happen to think it is his nicest card overall - it is terrific in person.)

I wrote about this with Lyman in Old Cardboard several years ago based on there being two versions of the back, one showing 5 homeruns in September, 1920 and no season total and the other showing his full season with 10 homeruns in May and a season total at the bottom:

https://www.oldcardboard.com//eNews/...eNews157.htm#2

Love of the Game also points out that the photo used is from 1920 because it features the black arm band that the Yankees wore in 1920 in memory of Ray Chapman, who died that year.

https://bid.loveofthegameauctions.co...ce?itemid=7720

The new piece of evidence, and the nail in the coffin for the 1920 date, is the Saturday Evening Post ad featured in the LOTG sale. I just dug into this looking for a date and discovered that it was published in the Saturday Evening Post on October 9, 1920 (Volume 193, Issue 15, Page 37):

https://archive.org/details/sim_satu...ge/36/mode/1up

So this makes this a 1920 issue, not 1921.

(I have just emailed Lyman to ask that the Old Cardboard article be update with this new information, so if you click that link above and see the new information about the ad, it means he has already added it.)