Question About 52 Topps Printing.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Masking error?

Most likely.

There would be original art, probably a pasteup for the whole sheet.
That would have been photographed by a very large camera that made a sheet size negative.
Then opaque paper would be used to make a mask to block out the parts not desired in a particular color.
Those would be used to expose the plates.

So if the mask was torn a bit or made wrong, the star would have been exposed and the plate would print a black star.

Repairing that error would be as simple as applying a bit of opaque tape over the star, or taping down the torn bit. It could even be corrected directly on the plate with a special limestone crayon.

Correcting the Zernial woud require at the least a small portion of new original art, a new negative -Either complete or a small piece spliced in, a new mask if it wasn't spliced, and a new plate. Lots of work.

Steve B