[drcy]

I don't know how they did it with the T206s and haven't looked into it, but in some prints the black text is printed from its own, separate printing plate. I had Topps complete progression proofs for 1970s cards that showed they at least sometimes printed the text from its own printing plate. Progression proofs were a pre-final printing quaiity control series of card sheets, each sheet printed from a different combination of printing plates (yellow/blue plates, magenta/yellow plates, just yellow, just blue, just black, etc). Printers did this to make sure the printing aligned and the colors looked right before printing off the 10,000 or whatever finished cards. The proofs clearly showed the individual plates they used and, at least for the proofs I had, the front black text came from its own printing plate-- even separate from the other black parts (black outline around player's picture and black details in picture). One proof would have all the colors, including black, but wouldn't have the text. Another proof would have just the black border design and black details in the player's picture, again without the text. So the idea that just the text can legitimately be missing from a card is theoretically possible.