Barry,
To answer your question on the “overprints” the two that have 649 overprints in red are real scraps one of a kinds if you will.
I view them as printer scraps with another factory’s markings upside down on the back not unlike Leon’s really cool brown Old Mill with many overprints. To me I draw the line on them like I do upside down backs, miscuts etc. a neat anomaly but not so much a separate back.
Quite simply my thought is that for whatever reason a sheet or sheets of these Old Mill southern cards were printed in “Brown” vs. the normal “Black”. At some point in their lives the sheet was used from the printing room floor and was used as a test sheet and received the markings from Sweet Caporal 649 Bar Overprint. In Leon’s cards case it got a few other brands applied as well and reverse wet sheet of Young lucky SOB.
As for normal “Brown” Old Mill’s at some point these cards were hand cut from the sheet and taken home or who knows perhaps stuck in packs nobody will never know for sure. To date no known factory cut “Brown” Old Mill card has surfaced. Brown Old Mills have only been found on Southern League “Brown” Hindu players to date, and most likely are not found on any Texas league players. All the confirmed “Brown” OM's are also found with “Brown” Hindu backs as well.
What is clear is for whatever reason the printers caught the mistake and clearly wanted this ad back printed in “Black” not “Brown” hence why there are so few examples floating today.
I would guess to say that there around less than 15 or so “Brown” Old Mills floating publicly today. Most are very rough cut or not to even there are about 4 really nice examples known in which the hand cut is straighter and are the backs are super clean.
Now there could easily be more examples locked away in collections that have yet to surface or the owners have simply failed to realize they are “Brown” and special.
Even grading companies have missed these cards, they catch the trimming but fail to see the “Brown” the last Goodwin card is a prime example of that.
As for the bogus Old Mill OP’s in black created by T206musuem owner Patrick Chan here is the article I put together for the FBI showing what is wrong with the cards for folks who may have missed that little drama.
http://imageevent.com/piojohn3/fraud...milloverprints
Thanks for all the kind words guys.
Jim B I know you need a “Brown” Old Mill and I may need Cobb so here’s the plan we share each other’s Cobb and “Brown” Old Mill I get every other weekend with them that way on any given Sunday we are both fully done.
Cheers,
John