T206 "ELITE EIGHT"....but then there were SEVEN

[tedzan]

Approx. 6 years ago, a number of us T206 "nuts" conducted several surveys on this forum regarding certain 150/350 series cards, which resulted in a narrowing
down of these 8 subjects as being quite unique in this series. The majority of the population of these 8 is found with 150 series backs (PIEDMONT, SOVEREIGN,
and SWEET CAPORAL). And, very rarely with Brown HINDU (Karger and Mullin have yet to be confirmed with this back). Also the Bob Ewing and Tom Jones cards
are found with the SWEET CAPORAL 150, Factory 649 (overprint) back.





I referred to these 8 subjects as the " ELITE EIGHT " because of the difficulty of finding them with the following two 350 series backs.

What differentiates these 8 150/350 subjects from the numerous other 150/350 series cards in the set, is that they were NOT PRINTED with SOVEREIGN 350, or
SWEET CAPORAL 350, or OLD MILL backs. But, quite rarely are found with a PIEDMONT 350 back. Furthermore, 7 of these cards are found with the very tough
El PRINCIPE de GALES back (EPDG). Finding these 7 cards with the EPDG back is as scarce (if not scarcer) as finding them with the PIEDMONT 350 back.

The Schulte card has never been found with an EPDG back.

Now, there exists a single example of a Schulte card with a PIEDMONT 350 back. Recently, scans of this Schulte card have become available. Several of us who
have seen this card agree that it appears to be HAND-CUT. This observation and the fact that an EPDG version of Schulte has never been seen, certainly raises
the question..... Is this card a regular production T206 ?

Until that time when a FACTORY-CUT example of this Schulte with a PIEDMONT 350 back is confirmed and/or a FACTORY-CUT example of this Schulte with an
EPDG back is confirmed....we are left to consider this lone example as...."printer's scrap".


Therefore, at this point in time, the Schulte (front view) T206 should be re-classified as an "150-Only series" subject.


NOTE

The elusive Carl Lundgren (Chicago) card was initially included in this group; but, I removed it. This subject is in a class of its own, by virtue of the fact that it
was printed with only 3 backs. And, as the above 7 subjects, its PIEDMONT 350 and EPDG versions are quite tough to find.






TED Z