Before this thread disappears into "never-never land"......let's consider the nitty-gritty of the SOVEREIGN 350 series cards.
American Lithographic (ALC) introduced 270 new subjects in their 350 Series..... 184 - Major Leaguers, and 86 - Minor Leaguers (Eastern League and American Association).
The 1st press runs of this 350 Series were the PIEDMONT 350 cards of which all 270 subjects were printed.
Then for reasons unknown, ALC printed only 204 of these new subjects with the SOVEREIGN 350 backs. The early press runs included 79 Major League subjects and 59 Minor
League subjects. These cards were printed with the normal shade of Green ink.
Incidently, 66 subjects are missing (No Prints) from the original 270. Perhaps, ALC either ran out the pre-printed sheets of these missing 66 subjects, or they switched these
66-subjects sheets to printing other T-brands (CAROLINA BRIGHTS, OLD MILL, POLAR BEAR, etc.) on their backs.
In their last press runs of this series, ALC printed the final 66 subjects (of the 204) with SOVEREIGN 350 backs using a lighter Green ink (that we refer to as "apple green").
Illustrated here, are this color differences of these two groups of cards with SOVEREIGN 350 backs.
..............
..................apple green backs
................ normal green back
The 6 super-prints
** are included in this group of 66. My theory is that these 66 guys were on the very last pre-printed sheets of the 350 series. Check-out my simulated 72-card
sheet. Note that the majority of them are action poses. ALC printed the portraits of most of these players in the 150 Series. In subsequent series ALC printed them in action poses.
Apparently, ALC then extended these 66 subjects into what we refer to as the
350/460 series.
Actually, 63 of these 66 subjects were printed with the various 460 Series backs. Joe Doyle, Simon Nicholls, and Bob Rhoades were not printed with any 460 Series backs, probably
because their Major League careers had ended prior to the timeline of this press run.
Simulated 72-card sheet comprising of the SOVEREIGN 350 "apple green" cards
.
**Note that my sheet has the 6 super-prints Double-Printed. I have seen these super-prints with Same-Names (top & bottom) with SOVEREIGN 350 backs.
Furthermore, T206 surveys indicate that these super-prints are more plentiful than any of the other 60 cards in this group with SOVEREIGN 350 backs.
I hope my lengthy presentation here is clear. It is the result of the on-going research I did while completing an all-SOVEREIGN set in 2007. In this process
I gained a tremendous amount of insight into the make-up of this unique set.
Any comments, differences, or questions regarding this Series of the SOVEREIGN set are greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
TED Z
.