For fun (as classified by me) I went through the players in the R316 Kashin set to see if its widely identified year of issue is 1929. After plowing through the 101 players of the set, I came to the following conclusion:
Yes, R316 Kashin cards were most likely first issued in 1929.
So nothing too earthshattering, but I did find out some interesting things along my research journey. First off, I would like to thank the Kashin Publication folks for listing the player's team on each card...that helped me out a lot. And a checklist was provided on the back of each box of 25 these were sold in. Also I would like to point out, as far as I know, no team changes were made throughout the production of these cards. There are 101 cards in the set. 4 boxes of 25 players were issued in four different color boxes. What makes this a set of 101 instead of 100, you may wonder?. Well, Babe Ruth was eventually added to every box of 25. In adding Ruth, one player originally included in each box (Bump Hadley - Orange, Jesse Haines - Blue, Socks Seibold -Canary, and Phil Todt - Coral) were removed, thus accounting for the 4 short prints.
As far as I can figure, at least three different box variations exist. I have included a picture below of four boxes, the image which I found on here by a noted collector, that depicts two of these back box list variations. The one box not shown is the one that does not include the Babe on any of the lists. Kashin then decided to bump Bump Hadley from the Orange box to add in Ruth (as is seen in the 'Orange' listing on the Blue box shown). At some point they decided everyone wanted Babe Ruth, so they knocked off the other 3 players I mention from each color box, as can be seen on the other 3 examples in the below image.
r316kashinboxes.jpg
I am guessing that not only is Ruth at least 3 to 4 times more common than any other player, but that the other players of the Orange box (besides the bumped Hadley) are likely to be somewhat more common than the rest, because there was a period where folks were likely seeking out Ruth in the Orange box during that intermediate period, before Kashin decided to go Ruth ape crazy.
And now back to the likely time of issue...what did I find out when researching the player's careers?
Let's start with three players who began their MLB careers in 1929. Dale Alexander, Roy Johnson, and Ad Liska all played their first MLB games within three days of each other in mid-April of 1929. To me it seems like these players would only have been included in this set after they had seen a certain amount of service (and success) with their respective teams. Which is all fine and good, but not entirely conclusive. Another player in the set, Jimmy Welsh, helps nail down the earliest issue date to late June 1929 or after, as he was traded from the Giants to the Boston Braves (the team designated on his card) on June 14th, 1929. I am forced to admit that Welsh did play for the Braves from 1925 to 1927, and was traded to the Giants in January 1928, the team that he performed for in 1928. Also, while researching I did note that Kashin made a team designation mistake on the Bill Regan card, identifying him as a Reds player (a team he never played for), instead of the correct Red Sox designation. But because of the three 1929 rookie players mentioned above, I believe the Welsh card indicates a mid-1929 issue date at the earliest.
Nailing down the length of the printing run of these is indeed less certain, because of the three box variations mentioned above, would likely suggest that production and distribution carried over into 1930. The lack of team changes makes dating everything less clear, but it should be noted that as early as February 5th, 1930, one player (Doug McWeeny) had been traded away from the team designated on his card, and ten others switched teams between April and June of 1930.
So no real revisions to the publication year timeline of this set, but still some additional information to ponder during the 15 minutes a day R316 Kashin pondering allotment you have been granted by the Prewar overlords that control us.
Brian
11-11-2025, 06:10 PM
R316 Kashin set likely issued at earliest in July 1929
Similar Threads
Threaded Mode