M116s Pastel vs Blue/Regular vs "Over 300"

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Posted By: Matt

What is the relationship between these two variations? I have seen it claimed that the blue backgrounds were for the early series cards when they got reprinted in the high series, but I have seen the same claim made about the "Over 300 Subjects" back. There would be no conflict if there was a 1 to 1 correlation between the two, but that is not the case, so what is the real story behind these variations?

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Posted By: scott brockelman

the 300 subjects cards that are not normally found with such backs, are from the later production of the team series that were available after the initial 24 series were distributed. I am not sure how many or which teams were available, the envelopes that they came in vary, some are printed with the team name, others are handstamped, most of the numbers are in the 50 series, but if memory serves me while typing this, I have seen them from the 30's thru 70's so it's quite possible they were issued in many teams and or combinations, as well as much longer than the accepted years of production. As an example their sister offer of W600's which are catalogued as 1902-1911 were offered at least until 1913 in Sporting Life ads, probably as a means of getting rid of excess production.

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

I am fairly certain that the blue backgrounds were issued earliest with the series 1-2 cards, and then they decided to switch over to pastels, and went back and issued 1-2 with the pastels. Or perhaps both backgrounds were issued simultaneously in Series 1-2 to see which consumers preferred, and the pastels were the winners. In either case the blue backgrounds and the 300 Subjects backs lie at opposite ends of the issue.

Tim