T206 Polar Bear back observation

[Archive]

Posted By: Don

I was looking at some T205 Polar Bear backs and it seemed that the tobacco staining was obvious to one degree or another on all of them.

It occurred to me that maybe the solid blue of the T206 Polar Bear backs was intentional, to hide the anticipated tobacco staining.

Any thoughts or other theories as to why Polar Bear the only solid color T206 back?

[Archive]

Posted By: Scot Reader

Don,

Interesting observation about the solid back and the advantage in masking tobacco staining. I had not thought of that.

Scot

[Archive]

Posted By: barry arnold

Interesting speculation.
My hunch is that the back is meant to 'match' the look of the polar bear tobacco
pouch.
Jon Canfield's website has a great picture of the pouch.

best,
barry

[Archive]

Posted By: Don

Barry,

I agree that could have also been a reason but if true, wouldn't be consistent across all brands.

Lenox, Uzit, Old Mill, American Beauty, Cycle, and Piedmont represent their packs fairly accurately by duplicating the script.

Broadleaf, EPGD, Hindu, Sovereign, Drum, Carolina Brights, Sweet Caporal, and Tolstoi, look nothing like their packs.

Also, there's no reason the Polar Bear brand couldn't have been portrayed fairly accurately with regular blue script printing instead of solid color "inverse" printing. The other "accurate" brands only tried to duplicate the script, not the whole pack. It seems like that would have been cheaper and easier to print Polar Bear that way also.

Plus, all the other brands are cigarettes. Polar Bear is the only scrap brand in T206. Hence the staining issue.

That, plus the T205 staining observation led me to think it could have been intentional to hide the anticipated tobacco staining. In T205, that wasn't an option because of the new bio/stats backs.

[Archive]

Posted By: Glenn

Well I'm convinced. I keep intending to build a complete Polar Bear set, a la Ted Z., but I always seem to be juggling too many other collecting pursuits. Oh well, maybe some day.

[Archive]

Posted By: barry arnold

Don, you make very good points.
As a lover of the 206s, I want very much to believe that your contention was their intention.

best,

barry

[Archive]

Posted By: Jon Canfield

With respect to the Polar Bear backs, I had always wondered if the plate used to do the print-runs was made incorrectly (on mistake) in that the text was intended to be the portion printed as opposed to the background being printed and the text showing through as unprinted. In other words, when the back-plate was made, it was inversed so when ink is applied, it prints the dark blue and the text shows through when actually it was inteded to apply the blue ink to the words.

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For the premier online souce of information on baseball-related cigarette packs, visit http://www.baseballandtobacco.com

[PolarBear]

This was my thread from the old forum. Just thought I'd bump it for further discussion.

[teetwoohsix]

Don-

I have a few T206's with Polar Bear backs,and on a couple of them you can really see the stains from the tobacco.I do also have a couple that have practically have no staining.

Do people who collect Polar Bear sets generally seek out the cards with no staining,or is the staining accepted with these cards being that they come from scrap pouch tobacco?I would think most people who collect Polar Bear would most likely accept the staining?

Regards,Clayton