Oops, you're right it was there all along. I see that both of yours are cropped slightly tighter than the deckles as released--the faux sigs stretch beyond the photo.
I wonder if Topps was testing whether to issue the '69s on the same stock as the '68 game cards (doubtful IMO) or perhaps just seeing how well the photos looked when printed on glossy paper. The company was either fond of that stock or had purchased a surplus, as it used it again with the 1971 Football game cards. Given that there are a variety of test variations or proofs known for what became the '69 deckles, it seems possible that Topps tried playing around with different styles. Do we know if the proof sheets are printed on the thicker deckle stock or the flimsier game stock?
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Now watch what you say, or they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal
Won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable
If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th US President.
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