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.