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Posted By: Andy Baran

The correct year for this set, including the blank backs, is 1917. The reason that the pop reports have 2 separate years is because the set was incorrectly listed as a 1916 issue for a very long time, and many cards were graded as such. There are several different backs for the cards (Collins McCarthy, Boston Store, Weils, etc.). Obviously the producer of the cards sold them to companies to put their own back advertising on them. My guess is that the blank backs were simply just not produced with an ad, then somehow distributed. There is no reason to believe that these cards were an earlier issue, based on the player/team combinations in the set. I hope this helps.