The rarest..Brown OLD MILL/Factory #649 red overprint

[tedzan]

As rare as the Southern League Brown OLD MILL cards are, there is even a scarcer version. Shown here is a red overprinted Brown OLD MILL. If you recall,
in the current "Brown OLD MILL" thread, I speculated that Brown OLD MILL's are the result of printer's ERROR in applying BROWN ink that was used to print
a run of Brown HINDU Southern Leaguers (prior to a print run of OLD MILL Southern Leaguers).

I regard these red overprinted Brown OLD MILL's as further evidence of printer's scrap. At some point in 1909, ATC transferred their SWEET CAPORAL ciga-
rette production to their modern facility in Rochester, NY (Factory #649). Therefore, American Litho. had to overprint their SWEET CAP 150 (Factory 30)
stock with "Factory #649 1st Dist. N.Y."

These overprinted OLD MILL's are simply printer's "inking proofs". And, like the Brown OLD MILL's, these were never meant to be inserted in cigarette packs.

Incidently, has anyone noticed the very interesting coincidence of HINDU cigarettes being also produced at Factory #649 ?

No coincidence, I say....the various Factory's throughout ATC system would place orders with American Litho. (ALC) for 1000's of T206's. ALC would then
fill these orders on a large batch process, printing up all cards destined for that factory....in this case HINDU and SWEET CAPORAL.


.................................................. .................................................. ...........


.................................................. .................................................. ......................Factory #649....1st Dist. N.Y.

I welcome any comments (pro or con) on this subject. And, you lucky ones that have any of these extremely rare Brown OLD MILL/Factory #649 overprints,
please share them with us ?

Thanks,

TED Z