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Chris CountsFrank, I'm a big fan of Exhibits, so I found the article quite interesting. After reading it, I went and looked at my exhibits to see, first, if I have any reprints, and second, if the system for telling the years works. The main thing I noticed was ... every card except two has a yellowing gray-beige back. The two are "Salutations" of Duke Derringer and Bucky Walters, which have white-gray backs showing no signs of yellowing. The fronts are sepia and look good, but there is no gloss on the surface ... while I would not describe the others as glossy, the surface of each other card has at least some ability to reflect light ...
Another thing that has always made me a little nervous about exhibits is how good the condition is on many of them ... but I checked the backs of all my nice ones, and they look (expect for the two mentioned), and even smell, like old cardboard. I'm presuming there were large hordes of Exhibits that were never circulated ...
Since I collect Exhibits, I'm very curious to learn more about the fakes ... I have a feeling there are others besides the group of 16 50s stars previously mentioned that have been reprinted ... and I'm not referring to the "official" reprints from 1980 ...