Earlier in this thread, I posted the 1997 Essential Credentials. It was /99 and had a less rare counterpart, Credentials, /299.
In 1998, they introduced a numbering system that they would use for several other years. They made a Future and Now version of the Essential Credentials parallels and did away with the Credentials.
There were 100 cards in the set. The checklist was basically organized as a ranking system where the top players were near the beginning of the checklist, and the younger players were toward the end of the checklist.
So, the way the Essential Credentials set worked was the Now version was numbered to the card number that player was in the set. Card #1 in the set was a 1/1, card number 2 was /2, and so forth until you get to the last card in the checklist /100. The Future version was the opposite. The young players got the really rare cards, and the stars got the less rare version. The Futures were numbered to 101 minus the card number. So card number 100 in the set was a 1/1, whereas card number 1 was /100. Meaning each player had 101 total Essential Credentials.
Barry Larkin was card #25. Therefore, his Essential Credentials Now was /25, and his Future was /76.
The cards themselves were multi-layer, as the previous year, with acetate and foil coming together to make a shiny masterpiece. Below is the Barry Larkin Essential Credentials Future. I do not yet have the Now version, but am on the hunt. I will do a separate post when we get to 1999, but they used a similar numbering system that year as well.
