Question about Anonymous brown ink T207 back
 

I just acquired this Anonymous back (Louisiana Factory 3) T207 card of Earl Moore. I immediately noticed that the ink on the back was distinctively brown rather than black. I have owned several hundred T207's and have seen many examples of light registration or fading on the black ink but this one is clearly brown. I am aware of the scarce examples of brown ink printing on Recruit backed cards but have never seen an example with any other back. Is anybody else aware of such examples?

Hey Marc,

Nice card. Yes, there's a couple anon. backs with brown text out there.

For more info. search T207 brown backs and you find a couple threads where someone mentions there anon. card.

Do you have any recruits with brown?

Rob

Hey Rob,
Thanks for the reply. I tried to search some previous threads and didn't see any that mentioned Broadleaf/Cycle class cards with the brown back. I may have just overlooked that so I will search again. No, I have never owned any of the brown Recruits but I have seen a couple in person and the difference is obvious when the card is in hand.

T207 brown, anonymous
 

Good eyes, Marc!

After reading your post, I went back through some images of the various backs, looking for just that, and found a surprising number of possibilities. Mostly, I was surprised that I had never really noticed that on Broadleaf class cards.

In many cases, it'd be a hard sell that isn't just faded, but I think you can make the case for a least a couple. Like you say, when you've got them in hand, it is distinctive.

I've attached scans of a couple of Broadleaf class examples paralleling yours - more of the Anon 3 cards show the brownish ink than the Factory 25, but it may not be exclusive and there's no obvious pattern as the sample size is tiny. Don't have these cards in hand to do side-by-side comparison, so the scans will have to do (all done with the same scanner).

Tyler, Rath - multiple copies each with Anon 3 - one each black, brown

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...lerRath-A3.jpg

Moore - Anon 25 (blk) ,Anon 3 (brwn?) ,Anon 25 (brwn?) , Broadleaf. The two Factory 25 examples appear different, though this seems more like fading/print quality.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...-A3-25-B25.jpg

Bauman - Anon 25 (blk) , Anon 3 (brwn).

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...man-A3-A25.jpg

Kutina - Anon 25 (blk), Anon 3 (blk?), Broadleaf (blk).

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...A3-A25-B25.jpg

R. Miller - Anon 3 (brwn?), Broadleaf (blk)

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...ller-A3-BL.jpg

Nice cards Mike.

I know you have seen and own a recruit brown text.

Those are more distinguishable than the anon. brown backs. That being said, I do believe that the anon brown backs are real.

Brown Recruit T207 back
 

Nice cards Bruce and Mike! Thanks for sharing.

Mike, that Tyler definitely looks brown to me. It's tougher to tell on the others but there certainly seems to be some difference in shading on some of them.

It seems that the browner ones are all Factory 3 so I wonder if there was possibly one print run in which the brown ink was used. I have several other Anon Factory 3 backs and all are distinctively black ink, even if light or faded. It seems strange that there would be two full runs as the Anon 3 is the scarcest back in the set (other than Red Cross of course) but if there are genuinely brown and black backs, I don't know of another explanation.

Well, they looked better last night.
 

Nice Cole, Bruce - that's what they're supposed to look like.

I agree, Marc - the Tyler is/was the most obvious of that group, though not as obvious as the Gardner that Rob is referring to... and how many people get referred to a "crack second sacker" anyway?

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...dner-Brown.jpg

In retrospect, all of the scans - including the Gardner - looked much better last night, and still do on my local system...

Hi Marc,

Over the past couple of years, really since the brown text recruits were introduced to me, I've tried to make a connection with the recruit back factories and brown text.

I was sure it would be found with just one factory, but NOPE it's documented with both 606 and 240.

Not to say that the anonymous brown backs aren't only one printing.

Rob

As a lifelong Royals fan, I would often refer to Jose Lind as a "crack second sacker" though I suspect it was for different reasons :)

That is indeed a mystery about the various factories with known brown ink backs. I suppose one print run could have accounted for all known examples with any back if these cards were printed elsewhere...but the scarcity of the Anon 3 backs makes it surprising that there were at least two runs on those.