T206 card with possible non-T206 ghost print

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Posted By: Jamie Hull

Hi all.
I recently picked up this piece of T206 printer’s scrap. It’s got the usual rough hand cut. The Russ Ford front is normal, but the back of the card is quite interesting. It’s got a Tolstoi ad, but double-struck. It’s also got a pink ink layer from another printing, which is off-center both left to right and top to bottom. The result’s kind of a window pane look.

When I turned the back upside down, I noticed a very clear ghost portrait in the lower left pane. I’ve looked and looked, but haven’t been able to identify him (the white blob on his forehead is a spot of paper loss and not part of the image). Does he look familiar to anybody?

I’m starting to suspect that it might be a non-T206 image, something perhaps from one of the other series of cigarette card inserts produced for the ATC – like the Tolstoi military cards. Two distinctive things about the image are the neck and collar area, which doesn’t look like part of a baseball uniform, and the shamrock-like symbol on his shoulder. Anybody know of any T206 scrap with non-T206 stuff on it?

Jamie

Edit: revised title to be more specific

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Posted By: Jamie Hull

Wow. I’d have thought this card would’ve drawn a few responses.

If the ghost portrait is not an image from the T206 series, this would be the only T206 scrap of its kind that I’ve ever heard of. It would also seem to suggest that the American Lithograph Company, not surprisingly, was printing non-T206 cigarette card inserts simultaneously with their production of the T206s. Whether they were all for the American Tobacco Company or not, who knows.

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Posted By: Art M.

The ghost print does look like it comes from the T79 Military series issued by American Tobacco company in early 1910. These cards have Tolstoi backs like T206 cards. I have gone through my T79 cards but cannot match the ghost image.
Art

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Posted By: Jamie Hull

Thanks Art.
He does sort of look like a military man -- and that would be one explanation of the shoulder ornament. Plus, when I look at the scratchy looking image from the card above him, the thing that keeps coming to my mind is an epaulette.

Jamie

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Posted By: Steve Dawson

I don't know, but every time I look at that image, it looks to me like George Washington.


Steve

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Posted By: J Levine

It could also be a ghost print from t80 military set and I would lean more toward that. The t80 were very similar to the t205 sets and used color backgrounds (like red) and were also the same size as the t206. T79s were larger cards and most often had white backgrounds. I do not have my t80 partial set in front of me but it looks like that might be the likely suspect. Also t80s were inserted with baseball cards in tolstoi packs as well and were produced in the same time frame. I think the t79s were earlier.

Joshua

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Posted By: steve f

Very cool. The shoulder item may be a propeller. Check your Rear... Admirals.