[brianp-beme]

Sometimes I am an oblivious collector. A little background info...it has been known within the hobby for years that the famous author F. Scott Fitzgerald collected T206's when he was a child in Minnesota, and that these cards were evidently stamped on their backs by him with an ornate 'F'. Supposedly Fitzgerald's childhood collection was sold in 1941 to a collector, who eventually dispersed these cards to the collecting world.

I have known about this fun hobby fact for about five years...I learned of it from you fine fellow Net54ers. I discovered at that time that I have a T206 Turner with one of these stamps (a card I probably had for a decade or so prior). This card is shown below.

Now for the dilemma. I just discovered (hello Mr. Oblivious) that I also have a 1910 Obak card (also shown) with this same distinctive stamp. Hey, I am a front collector, so please have mercy on me. I have owned this Obak of Williams for 13 to 16 years, as this was the period when I was collecting this set.

Any theories on how an Obak came into little Fitzgerald's possession? During this tobacco card era he was growing up in Minnesota, so one would figure that the T206 cards were readily available in his area. But as far as I know, the Obak set was only distributed along the West Coast. How did he end up with an Obak? Has anyone else seen a non-T206 with his stamp?

More questions...anyone familiar with FSF childhood history? Did his family travel? If he was a stay at home kid, did he perhaps trade for the Obak?

And one final doozie...do you think this Obak puts whole 'F' stamp story up to some serious scrutiny? Remember, I picked this up over a decade ago, before there was much interest in these stamps, so I don't think it is a forgery.

Would love to hear what you all think about this.

Brian