Posted By:
petecldJay,
With all due respect I think you may be seeing what you want to see. I desperately want the image used for Cy Young cards on the E98 and E97 sets to be Cy Young but I have to admit it isn't.
There is definitely a little part of the second hump of the "m" missing and it looks like some surface damage in that very spot. I don't think that is a lower case "L". The bottom half is the final down stroke of the "m" with either a speck of dirt above it, an errant ink spot, or maybe even a carefully "placed" errant ink spot.
Below, is a comparison using your scan and the two lower case "LL" from my Overall card. Notice the edges of the "L's are quite distinct. The "L" on the Hofman card is fuzzy. That wouldn't be caused by dirt on the plate.
E90-3 are notorious for poor print jobs. I don't think this is a legitimate variation. I would also think that if many others considered it a legitimate variation it wouldn't have sold so cheap.