T206 "350-460" Question

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Posted By: Matt

I have a question regarding the 350-460 designation on the backs of Piedmont and Sweet Caporal T-206 cards. Its been bugging me for a while as I'm trying to put together a chronological T206 set (all 150, 350 and 460s). There is probably an obvious answer to it but I can't figure it out.

I realize the "150 Subjects" and "350 Subjects" designation was to represent how many different cards were available with each release (and I realize they aren't 100% accurate).

Why did the last release of Piedmont and Sweet Cap backs have a "350-460 Subjects" designation? What exactly was this supposed to mean other than there are 460 subjects? Why was it not just listed as "460 Subjects" as the Sovereign, Broadleaf and Cycle backs are listed?

Is there any significance to the 350-460 designation? Or is it just what they did. It just seems like a weird way to list how many cards were made? They didn't list the 2nd release as "150-350" subjects.


edit: spelling errors

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Posted By: barrysloate

As has been suggested on the board recently, the T206 set was a work in progress. It is possible even the companies that issued the cards didn't know how the set would look at the end. So perhaps at that point they had only a general idea of how many cards would be issued. I don't think they started out by saying: let's do a set of 523 cards. The number of players just grew as the project progressed.

And that is just a guess. Others may have a better idea.

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Posted By: Scot Reader

Matt,

This is a good question. I don't think enough attention has been given to it--and actually I think it supports Ted Z's theory that Piedmont (and Sweet Caporal) branded subjects were issued before the other subjects. Consider that the only brands that say 350-460 subjects are Piedmont and Sweet Caporal. The other 460 brands just say 460 subjects or do not designate the number of subjects. Elaborating on what Barry said above, the T206 designers may have created the Piedmont and Sweet Cap 460 backs before the other 460 backs and before they knew how many subjects were planned. Hence the 350-460 subjects designation on those backs. Then, the T206 designers may have created the other 460 backs after they had settled on the 460 number. Hence the 460 subjects number on those backs (to the extent those backs have a number at all). Of course the 460 subjects number is not correct, but that is another matter.

Scot

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Scot, Ted, that's great stuff. I'd noticed the difference between 350-460 and plain 460. That September 1909 Sporting Life ad by The American Tobacco Company only mentions 3 brands, Sweet Caporal, Piedmont, and Sovereign. 150 series cards are only on 3 brands, those 3 mentioned in the ads (1 factory each for Piedmont and Sovereign, 3 factories for Sweet Caporal). So it's easy to accept that one of those 3 companies was first in card distribution... and Piedmont makes sense.

But what I'd not contemplated was that the 350-460 designation only appears on Sweet Caporal and Piedmont, indicating that those brands got to 460 first. Still, it seems if those brands were able to put the number 460 on there they could have left 350 off, as the other companies eventually did. Maybe what was happening is that someone at American Lithograph set it up as 350-460 indicating the 3rd enumerated series, and after passage of time someone decided to just put 460 on all of them. After all, they didn't have a 150-350 did they?

These cards weren't printed with the 'season' or 'year' mentality that we have today, they just started printing them, and kept on. Eventually, 'they' decided to quit adding to the white border set and start a new design, the gold border set.

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Posted By: Matt

I agree that the "350-460" designation only appearing on Piedmont and Sweet Caps is good evidence that they were printed first on the run.

Also some good points I need to remember when thinking about this set - the set was always changing and wasn’t fully planned out at the beginning as today's modern sets are. How great would it be to “discover” any production notes or planning ideas stuck in an old notebook that went into how the set was created or how the players were chosen? I guess some of the proof cards that weren’t released tell us that some cuts were made. It would be great to know why and how many others there were.

I guess it will always be a mystery whether the 350-460 was used to signify that they wanted to release 460 different subjects when the Piedmont and Sweet Caps went into production and at that time it wasn’t known if it would happen, so just in case, they used a designation stating there would be somewhere in the range of "350-460" subjects. By the time the other “backs” went into production they were satisfied they would reach the 460 mark and there was no longer a need for the 350-460 designation.

This theory satisfies me for now. Anyone else have an idea?


edit: once again spelling