[Leon]

Originally Posted by Bliggity

Thanks DJ, very interesting stuff!

It seems to me that of the Young and Magee Prizefighters, the Magee designated as E102 must be incorrect. The matching upside-down/miscut backs on those two cards suggest that they were cut from the same sheet. Magee and Young were both in the E101 set, but only Magee was in E102. So, if these cards were on the same sheet, it could not have been an E102 sheet. That's not to say it was definitely an E101 sheet, but we know it wasn't an E102.

Here's something else. (Again, warning - a novice outside of his comfort zone.) The E26 Animals and E78 Prizefighters were 1910 issues, yes? My understanding is that the E101 and E102 printings would have predated that - at least they're slabbed as 1908/09. So it seems to me that those "wrong backs" could not be E101s or E102s. Looking at the seven confirmed Menagerie backs (and also the Prizefighters, actually), the only sets that contain all those front poses are E92 (all four), E101, and E105. We know E101 was a 1909 issue, as was E92. The only 1910 issue was E105. So is it possible that the wrong backs are actually E105s? Doesn't that make the most sense based on the dates?

E105s are on almost paper thin stock.....I don't think all of the "years" of those early caramel sets are so set in stone either. I think there were series issued multiple years.