Posted By:
Tim NewcombScott,
You bring up an interesting point about M101-4 Famous and Barr. I had been struck by this as well, and for a while I was toying with a theory that since M101-4 is clearly later than M101-5 (even if they did both appear in 1916), maybe the department store didn't get around to distributing the whole set, but only the first numbers.
That could still be largely true, but I did finally find one very late number (Vitt #181) to go with the others I had, which are 2, 6, 10, 11, and 20. By the way, (Scott, you probably know that)the common numbers can be assigned to M101-4 or M101-5 because the Famous and Barr backs are printed in different directions relative to the fronts in each set.
I also think the scarcity of the M101-4 Famous and Barrs is drastically underestimated, probably because people know the back is common in M101-5 and just assume it's true overall.
Is it possible are we dealing with such small numbers of survivors in M101-4 F&B that one person's hoard, which stopped after the first couple of dozen numbers, provides most of what we now see?
This is a question for us to keep investigating-- who else has Famous and Barr backs with M101-4 numbers? And what numbers do you have? Post 'em or let me or Todd Schultz know.
Thanks!
Tim