Hi folks, I won the B.E. Thompson in the last REA Auction. I don't have it in hand yet for complex covid-19 reasons, but anyway I wanted to point out for advanced T209 Contentnea collectors here (and I know they're here!) that the reason I pounced on it was it appears to have a "frames" back. As Mike Peich's excellent website notes, there are in fact FOUR different variations of the Thompson back--type collectors, your job is never done! But Mike (who may be around and reading this -- happy new year, and I hope you're doing well) states that the "frames" variety is only known in a single copy--interestingly the frames look really similar, with the same unjoined upper left corner. I apologize for the bad images, but the auction link is here:
https://robertedwardauctions.com/auc...d-as-uncle-sam
And Mike's website is here, scroll down for the Thompson backs, discussion and images.
https://t209-contentnea.com/t209-con...-photo-series/
Now, I have yet to see the one I picked up in person, but it clearly doesn't look like the one pictured on Mike's website. I think this now disproves the idea that the framed version that was known to exist was a scrap or rejected design. Instead, we have Erwin Nadal really tinkering with the design of these Thompson cards. I don't know the reason why, or what that means for the printing of the set. I also don't know the provenance of this card before it was offered in REA. But anyway, it's a cool find from a pre-war set that keeps giving us surprises!