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Posted By: davidcycleback

Steve, the sepia tone is due to aging. The cards were originally closer to black
and white. Sometimes one sees a well preserved Old Judge or other albumen photo
that has the original colors.

The albumen paper was covered in chicken egg whites (albumen literally means
egg white), so it's hard to imaging them staying in mint condition. The positive
is that, in case of earthquake or other idolating natural disaster, the advanced
collector can survive for numerous days on his Old Judge collection.