Hi Tim.
That does make sense. I don't know that you're right, and I don't know that I'm right. Nor do I know if you're wrong, or if I am. That's part of what makes T206s interesting.
I do think though that if the Ritchey variations were due only to Dark Blue ink levels that we'd see some kind of similar variations in the cards that came from the same sheet. Not the occasional card with slightly more or less blue, but a lot of examples of a handful of other T206s that have a lot of gradation, as we see with Ritchey. It would be interesting, for myriad reasons, if anyone could point to others.
Also, if we assume that Ritchey was printed in vertical columns, then it seems weird to me, although maybe it could be possible, that the Dark Blue ink would show such fluctuations from the bottom of the card to the top, over and over across the surface of the larger printing plate. I could see maybe the top card, or top couple, in a column not getting inked properly, but not the entire column of cards. And even if it was an ink distribution problem, wouldn't there be Ritchey cards with no dark green grass (meaning that no Dark Blue ink at all reached the paper)?
Hope that's clear. Man, it's hard to use words to describe pictures.
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