A very fair question....and perhaps, I may have been somewhat unclear by mixing in too many factors in my story.
First......In is my understanding that uncut sheets of 12, 24, 36 or 48 T206 fronts were printed first.
2nd....By the Summer of 1909, American Litho. (ALC) had already printed "tons" of SWEET CAP 150 (Factory 30) cards.
In the Summer/Fall of 1909, J. B. Duke (ATC) decided to increase cigarette production at the more efficient and lower
cost Rochester plant (Factory #649) with the SWEET CAP brand. Remember, Factory #649 was already producing the
HINDU brand.
In order to accommodate this change, ALC selected from their existing stock of SWEET CAP cards and modified them in
order to be shipped to Rochester by overprinting their backs with the red bar and "Factory #649 1st Dist. N.Y." lettering.
3rd....in the process of cranking out Brown HINDU backs, let's assume the printer then continued to print the OLD MILL run
of Southern Leaguer's with the same Brown ink. Furthermore, we know that there are very few examples of the Brown OLD
MILL's that have been found, then we can further assume that this was a limited occurrence. And, that most of these were
used as printer's scrap (as is evident with the red overprints).
4th....Coincidences:
(a) The 34 subjects of the 150 series of So. Lgrs. were printed with both HINDU and OLD MILL backs.
(b) The "Factory #649 1st Dist. N.Y." printer's "test stamps" on the brown OLD MILL scraps are indicative of press runs
of HINDU cards and SWEET CAP (modified) cards occurring simultaneously.
Jon, actually I would guess that the red bar and the Factory #649 lettering were hand stamped on the backs of the
Sweet Cap 150/30 cards.
Finally, be not mistaken, the So. Lgrs. with the Brown OLD MILL's backs (with, or without the Red overprints) were
shipped to Richmond, Virginia (Factory #25). So, there's no confusion here.
If I haven't answered your question, please email me directly (please, no PM's) and we can discuss this some more.
tedzan@comcast.net
Best regards,
TED Z