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Posted By: scgaynor

Some of them are far more common than others, but none of them are rare. I think that the toughest one was the one with Ruth from the 1948 movie. Most of them are mint, which kind of scares people who don't know the history into thinking that they are reprints. I ran into that from time to time when I was selling them years ago.

There are some that had some weird toning though. The toning almost looked like splotches on the surface and they had a weird kind of almost glossy coating. I have no idea why.

They were obviously stored in stacks for decades and some of the signs on top of the stacks were toned so badly on the edges that they fell apart when touched. The signs in the middle were as nice as they day that they were printed.

I am surprised that anybody would reproduce these, there are so many originals that it would not seem cost effective.


Another item that people often think is a repro but is 100% authentic and vintage is this Mathewson piece

http://www.lelands.com/bid.aspx?auctionid=502&lot=57

I was with Josh Evans doing a buy show when a guy walked in with 6 or 7 of them. He thought that they were beer coasters. Those 6 or 7 were all that came out, but because they were so mint, they fooled people into thinking that they were repros.

If you know how to tell the difference between an item that is printed or copied, and know old paper stock, you will not get fooled often, even when an item seems too "mint".

Scott