Dating Exhibit Cards
Chris:
Here is the info I have on dating Exhibits. Unfortunately I am not sure where most of this information came from. Information on 1921-38 Exhibits can be gleaned from the Old Cardboard website (do a search by year of issue) to compare the different Exhibit fronts. Basic information from issues from 1938 on are as follows.
1939-66 EXHIBIT SUPPLY COMPANY
"MADE IN USA" (all caps) was used from 1939 through 1950
1939-41 "MADE IN USA" of 3/4 inch - 1939-41 sets were 16 cards and the 1942 sets were 32 cards. Averill, Gehrig, Gomez, Hartnett, Klein, Kreevich, Cordially, Lombardi, Mulcahy, Very Best Wishes Newson (sic), Rizzo and Russell. The "#9" Williams was also issued in this period and is about "medium tough".
1942-45 "MADE IN USA" of 1/2 inch - Include Rieser and Pollett who did not have full years until 1941.
1946 "MADE IN USA" of 9/16 inch - New plates were made and all cards given a red-brown color. Williams "no #9", Feller "pitching", and Greenberg "sideview" first shows.
1947 "MADE IN USA" of 1/2 inch - Exhibit returned to the production of a 64-card set. Dickey, McQuinn and Ott were dropped with 28 of the others continuing on. There were 35 new cards with the "Salutations" dropped. The 1947 set was really half salutations and half new style.
1948 "MADE IN USA" of 5/8 inch - 39 cards can be identified as from this year. A rarity was created as Barney McCosky was issued in error as Barney Mc Caskey.
1949 "AN EXHIBIT CARD" - 32 of the cards were given this new distinctive mark, and team cards were added for the first time. Eddie Waitkus was reissued with the "C" for Cubs airbrushed off his cap, so actually 33 cards were identifiable as being issued in 1949.
1950 "MADE IN USA" of 7/16 inch - 25 new cards were issued.
"Made in USA" (upper and lower case) from 1951 through 1953
1951 "Made In USA" - Exhibits abandoned the custom of changing the size of the mark each year and merely changed the mark to upper and lower case. There were 33 cards issued with this mark in the years 1951 and 1953.
1952 - B&W makes them easy to identify.
1953 - (same as 1951 above).
"PRINTED IN USA" (all caps) from 1954-1956
1954-56 "PRINTED IN USA" (upper case) - Thirty cards were issued in this way. All except one, the Pee Wee Reese, had the player's name set in a distinctive typescript. In 1955, an anomaly occurs where the Rizzuto and Doby that first appeared in 1949 appears with the "AN EXHIBIT CARD" scratched off.
"Printed in USA" (upper and lower case) 1957-61
1957-61 "Printed in USA" - The first two years, 1957-58, brought 35 cards marked in this way of which 28 were completely new to Exhibit. A total of 47 changed cards were introduced in 1959, giving the first year when all 64 cards had the same mark "Printed in USA." Even the "Salutation" Williams was updated this way. Up to now all cards were still somewhat reddish brown. (1960 B&W) And then in 1961 all cards were a deep brown. It is thus possible to do some dating by color in this issue.
1960 - B&W makes them easy to identify.
1961 - Players or new poses who appeared in 1960-61 but not continued thereafter include: Richie Ashburn as a Cub, the real Frank Thomas (C on cap), Bud Daley, Jackie Brandt, Hank Bauer (plain cap) Don Blasingame (plain cap), Rocky Colavito (portrait to chest), Joe Cuningham (batting), Ted Kluszewski (plain cap), Harvey Kuenn (plain cap portrait), Carl Sawatski (plain cap), Herb Score (plain cap) and Roy Sievers (plain cap).
1962 and 1963 - Stats on the back
1963 "Printed in USA" on the back - The set was expanded to 64 cards and the additional 32 new cards had the instead of the front.
1964 - The company just reissued the (64) 1963 cards with blank backs. It is hard to tell some of the older poses from previous cards; Spahn for example, still having his one and only pose.
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