Brown vs. black Lenox

[trdcrdkid]

You know, while I can see the difference between the brown and black Lenoxes in Sean's scans, and even more so in the picture Leon posted in that 2010 thread, it's a pretty subtle difference, one that I need to look closely to see. I assume that's why the difference wasn't even recognized in the hobby until fairly recently. Does anybody know when that difference started to be recognized? I don't remember ever hearing anything about it back in the early to mid-90s, but I see that Mark Peavey's 2001 pamphlet "The Mysteries of T206" does regognize the distinction (though without mentioning brown Old Mill).

It's not the type of thing that would prompt me to want to pay the type of premium that brown Lenoxes apparently command over black ones (assuming that I had that kind of money to spend), but to each his own. I also shake my head at the type of crazy premiums that PSA 10 cards command over PSA 9s (let alone 8s), but if people want to spend their money on that, I won't try to stop them.