1949B Marion blue-cap. Variation? Proof?

[Bob Lemke]

1949 #54 Marty Marion - Blue Hat.jpg
1949 #54 Marty Marion - Blue Hat - Back of card.jpg
Reader Jim McKinley has made inquiry about an unusual 1949 Bowman Marty Marion card #54 that he recently acquired.

Instead of the red Cardinals cap that Marion is shown wearing on all other '49B cards, this card has a blue cap. Whether coincidentally or part and parcel of the aberrant cap color, the back of the blue-cap Marion has what McKinley describes as bleed-through of the blue ink.

Given the thickness of '49 Bowman stock, I'm inclined to think that blue ink on back is the result of wet-ink transfer, with the sheet containing the Marion card having been laid atop a sheet of card fronts on which the blue ink had not yet dried.

Without personally examining the unusual card it's hard to say whether it left the Bowman print shop that way or whether a kid collector 60+ years ago changed the cap color.
49 marion red.jpg
Bowman's use of the red cap was, after all incorrect. The Cards' caps in that era were blue.