The T206 350-Only Series - Some Observations on Available Backs

[jimonym]

This is building off of Ted's comments in his Old Mill thread.

My numbers are a couple months old, but these back brands are pretty common and it’s unlikely there are too many front/back combinations still hiding out there that we haven’t confirmed.

There are 210 cards in the 350-only series:
Old Mill = 85 confirmed (40%)
EPDG = 102 confirmed (49%)

These 210 cards can be divided into four groups: those confirmed with both backs, those with neither, those with only Old Mill, and those with only EPDG:
Both = 73 confirmed out of 210 (35%)
Neither = 95 confirmed out of 210 (45%)
Old Mill and not confirmed with EPDG = 12 out of 210 (6%)
EPDG and not confirmed with Old Mill = 30 out of 210 (14%)

As you can see, it’s much more likely that a given 350-only card will either a) be found with both Old Mill and EPDG or b) will not be found with either back.

Here are the 12 cards in my notes that have been seen with Old Mill but have not been seen with EPDG:
Elberfeld (Portrait, Washington)
Hoffman (St. Louis)
Brown (Washington)
Dahlen (Brooklyn)
Hayden
Jones (Detroit)
Kleinow (Catching, NY)
Young (Minneapolis)
Fiene (Portrait)
Hoffman (Providence)
Hulswitt
McGlynn

I’d love to be proven wrong on any of these, so if you have one with an EPDG back please share it.


On the other side of things are the 30 cards that have been seen with EPDG but not with Old Mill:
Lundgren (Kansas City)
Demmitt (NY)
McAleese
Rhoades (Hands at Chest)
Doolan (Fielding)
Howard (Chicago)
Collins (Minneapolis)

Adkins
Barbeau
Barger
Brashear
Bresnahan (Batting)
Burchell
Davidson
Evans
Gray
Groom
Lattimore
Lord
Maddox
Mattern
McLean
Miller (Pittsburg)
Nattress
Phillippe
Puttman
Schlafly
Shannon
Sharpe
Snodgrass (Batting)

I’ve cut the list into two because a closer look at them reveals an interesting split. To see it though you have to add in two other back possibilities that we can be pretty sure we know all the front/back combinations for (Sovereign and Polar Bear). Again there are four possible groups: those confirmed with both Sovereign and Polar Bear, those with neither, those with only Sovereign, and those with only Polar Bear. I’ll break this out over the full 210 cards of the 350-only series so it’s a little easier to follow.

Group 1: 350-only cards confirmed with both Sovereign and Polar Bear = 93 cards (44% of all 350-only cards)
Within this group of 93 cards:
Confirmed with both Old Mill and EPDG = 48 out of 93 (52%)
Not confirmed with either = 37 out of 93 (40%)
Confirmed with Old Mill but not EDPG = 6 out of 93 (6%)
Confirmed with EPDG but not Old Mill = 2 out of 93 (2%) = Howard (Chicago) & Collins (Minneapolis)

Group 2: 350-only series cards not confirmed with either Sovereign or Polar Bear = 16 cards (just 8% of all 350-only cards)
Within this group of 16 cards:
Confirmed with both Old Mill and EPDG = 0 out of 16 (0%)
Not confirmed with either = 11 out of 16 (69%)
Confirmed with Old Mill but not EDPG = 2 out of 16 (13%)
Confirmed with EPDG but not Old Mill = 3 out of 16 (19%) = Lundgren (KC), Demmitt (NY), & McAleese

Group 3: 350-only series cards confirmed with Sovereign but not Polar Bear = 51 cards (24% of all 350-only cards)
Within this group of 51 cards:
Confirmed with both Old Mill and EPDG = 19 out of 51 (37%)
Not confirmed with either = 28 out of 51 (55%)
Confirmed with Old Mill but not EDPG = 2 out of 51 (4%)
Confirmed with EPDG but not Old Mill = 2 out of 51 (4%) = Rhoades (Hands at Chest) & Doolan (Fielding)

Group 4: 350-only series cards confirmed with Polar Bear but not Sovereign = 50 cards (24% of all 350-only cards)
Within this group of 50 cards:
Confirmed with both Old Mill and EPDG = 6 out of 50 (12%)
Not confirmed with either = 19 out of 50 (38%)
Confirmed with Old Mill but not EDPG = 2 out of 50 (4%)
Confirmed with EPDG but not Old Mill = 23 out of 50 (46%)

So 23 of that group of 30 cards that have been confirmed with EPDG but not with Old Mill fit into Group 4 (have Polar Bear but not Sovereign), leaving only 7 rule-breakers.


As a last point, on T213-1s. There are 42 T213-1 cards of major leaguers from the 350-only series. Here’s how they fall into the four groups I outlined above:
Group 1 = 1 card = Howell (Portrait)
Group 2 = 10 cards
Group 3 = 28 cards
Group 4 = 3 cards = Willett, Laporte, & Engle

Apologies for all the numbers. I guess my overall conclusions are these, and I’d love feedback/discussion on them:
1. There’s a general rule that a given 350-only card will either a) be found with both Old Mill and EPDG or b) will not be found with either back. 80% of the 210 350-only series cards fit this rule. And this rule holds whether or not the card was printed with Sovereign or Polar Bear or neither or both.
2. There’s a general rule that cards printed with EPDG backs but not printed with Old Mill backs can be found with Polar Bear but do not exist with Sovereign. 75% of the 30 cards in this group fit this rule.
3. T213-1 cards of major leaguers overwhelmingly were not printed as T206s with Polar Bear backs. 90% of the 42 cards in this group fit the rule. That could be coincidence, but to me it is another piece of evidence that Coupons series 1 cards are really T206 cards.
4. No common denominator of 6 or 8 or 12 or 16 or 48, etc., is going to help those who care figure out too many answers as to how sheets of T206s were printed.

[tedzan]

Your cross-referencing analysis here is a nice start in providing us some insight and understanding of American Lithographic's
scheme for why various subjects were printed with certain T-brand backs....with respect to the cards in the 350-only series.

While I need some time to consider all this data and get back to you, I do have one comment......I think that American Litho-
graphic initially designed the 350-only series to consist of 216 subjects. I realize that you haven't included the 6 super-prints.
But, I think you'll agree that these 6 subjects were first printed as 350-only cards (as their American Beauty 350-frame back
indicates).
And of course, American Litho. extended these 6 subjects into the 460 series. And subsequently, they printed these 6 in the
T213, T214 and T215 issues.

Having said all that, more importantly, I really want to thank you for some really fine analysis here.


TED Z

[srs1a]

The coupling between EPDG and OldMill is very odd. In the 150_350 series, if there is a confirmed EPDG, in general, there is not an OldMill example. In the 350-only series, it goes the other way as noted above. I spent a while trying to figure this out, but ended up more confused then when I started!

I've got a spreadsheet with the SGC pop report data for backs for a bunch of "single pose" T206 examples if someone wants to play around with it. There are a number of odd correlations among the various backs across the various series.

My list of confirmed EPDG backs includes Fiene (portrait) and Hulswitt -- 2 of the ones you were asking about above.

[cfc1909]

I don't think Adkins can be found with EPDG. At least I have never seen it. I would love to ad it to my list though. Do you have a scan of this card?

Very interesting comparisons.

In my Baltimore collection-I have Slagle and Strang with every possible back except Old Mill and EPDG. Actually I only have 2 of the 9 players with these backs. Dunn and Jackson are the only 2 Baltimore players I have ever seen with Old Mill and EPDG and I have seen plenty of each. Baltimore players coe with 13 possible backs and are 350 only cards. I can't confirm Adkins with Old Mill, EPDG or Sovereign but I do have him with Polar bear.

Here is my break down with the four backs

Old Mill-only Dunn and Jackson
EPDG-only Dunn and Jackson
Polar Bear-Adkins,Dessau,Jackson,Slagle and Strang
Sovereign-Cassidy, Dunn,Hall,Jackson,Poland, Slagle and Strang

Adkins and Dessau are Sovereign no prints

Jackson is the only player I can confirm with 12 backs-I have never seen him with Tolstoi but I think it does exist because Dunn exist with Tolstoi. I think Dunn and Jackson were on the same sheet. I can confirm Dunn with all except Drum and Polar Bear. I am pretty sure at some point they will turn up and Dunn and Jackson will be the only 2 with all 13 backs. I could be wrong though.

other backs with only a few confirmed

Carolina Brights-Dunn,Jackson,Slagle and Strang
Drum-Jackson,Slagle and Strang
Tolstoi-Dunn,Slagle and Strang

[sreader3]

Jamie,

Thanks for the analysis. Like Ted I want to mull it over before commenting.

Scot

[jimonym]

Jim,
I don't have a scan of Adkins+EPDG, just the entry in my notes that I've seen it at some point.

SRS,
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's gotten a headache from trying to figure this stuff out.

I think in general there are two drivers for front/back combinations.

One is timing. It's clear that some cards were pulled from production (e.g. Lundgren (Kansas City), Cross, Rossman, etc.) because the player changed teams. It's clear that other cards were late additions (e.g. Demmitt (St. Louis), Elberfeld (Portrait, Washington), Dahlen (Brooklyn), etc.) for the same reason. Given the wide variations across the 350-series I also have a very hard time envisioning that it was released all in one batch at one point in time. I think a much more likely explanation is a rolling release of several groupings, over many months. Then add to that different brands coming in and out of the process as distribution vehicles. I would suspect that most of these Old Mill backed cards were released early in the 350 series, before the T210s got started. Then after a hiatus from T206s, Old Mills were used to distribute them again nearer to the time of the release of the 350-460 cards. Hence, late release cards like Dahlen and Elberfeld being found with Old Mill backs.

A second is the way the printing was done. There were millions and millions of these cards printed, and certainly many thousands of each of the 350-only cards. I find it hard to believe that every example of a given card came from one printing plate, simply due to the volumes they were producing. As soon as you allow for more than one plate as the source of a given card all the neat groupings that might, based on back patterns alone, tell us which cards were produced together slip away. And several headaches later I can attest that there isn't much that's neat in the 350-only series.

[cfc1909]

I have seen Adkins on this list a few times and always questioned it and always thought whoever reported was mistaken. Now that I see it is coming from you, I will mark it on my list as confirmed.

[Kingcobb]

I have the Kleinlow N.Y. catching with EL PRICIPE DE GALES back PSA 4 cert# 15874142. Hopes this helps. Regards Daryl