Some T206 questions...

[GKreindler]

Hey all,

Hope this thread finds y'all well.

I also had some random questions for you T206 nuts. I might have asked these before in a previous thread, so if I did, please forgive me - my brain seems to be in shambles these days.

So, I'm in the process of making more business cards for myself. Now, I don't know if any of you had seen or remember my originals, but they were done in the style of the T206s. We gave a lot of them out in 2009 at the National in Cleveland, but that stock has just about run out. On the front was my painting of Christy Mathewson, and there were a few different choices for the back designs.

For these new ones, I am going to be using between 5-10 different paintings to keep things fun. But this go around, I wanted them to mimic the T206s better than the originals had. In Chicago last summer, I ended up buying a random common to get a better idea of the paper stock that these things were made of, in the hopes that I could match it (or come close to doing so). In the end, when they're printed, I'd very much like for that stock to resemble what people would have seen after pulling the cards right out of the packs in the early 1910s. Since a lot of you have probably handled some really high grade ones, I thought this would be a good place to ask a few things to make this project work. With that in mind, if any of you can provide some insight, you would rule.

So, here goes:

1) On the front, is it safe to assume that the borders were as white as the driven snow?
2) Same question for the back, be it Piedmont or Sweet Corporal (or any of the others), was it also pure white? Or more of a fine cream?
3) Again on the front of the card, was there a slight touch of gloss on it? It seems like on my card, the portrait side has a tiny tiny bit of a sheen to it. It's barely noticeable, but I could be making that up.
4) Any of you T206 historians, might you know if there was a specific announced name/weight for the paper that was used for the cards?

Thanks for reading everyone. Again, any help you can offer is appreciated.

Graig