[Archive]

Posted By: Dave

Johnny,

I'm well out of my expertise here, but that won't stop me from speculation. At least I admit it. Perhaps someone more familiar with the lithograph process can offer some assistance here.

I don't see how a plate would be made in mirror image. But I'd think that during the printing process, the registration of each color was maintained by placing the cardboard sheet against stops on two sides, top and left, for instance. Then all the plates for each color print on the cardboard with a constant offset from these edges and align on top of each other as they should be. The same for the backs. So, the backs are nominally aligned to the fronts, as we all know by looking at the centering of fronts and backs on most cards

So, the amazing alignment of back ink to the front image on the Tiniker card isn't so unusual, after all, it just mirrors the normal alignment of front images to back images.

I still maintain that this is a wet transfer from the back of a sheet to the front of another. It suggests that the other cards on that sheet would have similar transfer as this card. That's something we haven't seen, though.