General Discussion: Is This a Brown Old Mill Back?

[Sean1125]

One is simply more faded than the other.

[Tanman7baseball]

Funny, I too literally thought I had a Brown Old Mill back last week. I picked up a few Old Mills last week from an old collector and noticed two of the three looked brown. I couldn't tell for certain... I began to ask multiple people what color they thought and their decisions were split 50/50. Once I scanned the cards and compared to others I realized the Brown Old Mill backs are much more distinct in color. Also, I did some more research and found out that they are so incredibly rare that the odds of me having one are incredibly slim. After looking at the cards in various forms of light, I came to the sad conclusion that they are just very faded black.

[caramelcard]

The faded black Old Mills (like this one) take on a bit of a brown hue, but it's different then the actual brown Old Mills. It's a good example of why collectors often think they have one.

[JerryTotino]

I also agree that this card is faded black.

One easy thing you can do to dismiss almost all of the faded black cards is to see if the card is factory cut. No known Brown Old Mills are factory cut. Thus, unless it is hand cut there is no possible way for it to be a Brown Old Mill.

Jerry

[brianp-beme]

I hear faded black is the new brown.

The brown would have to be more distinctly brown for me to feel confident in calling it a Brown Old Mill.

Brian

[abothebear]

definitely blue.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by JerryTotino

I also agree that this card is faded black.

One easy thing you can do to dismiss almost all of the faded black cards is to see if the card is factory cut. No known Brown Old Mills are factory cut. Thus, unless it is hand cut there is no possible way for it to be a Brown Old Mill.

Jerry

Bingo. I think this is one of the key issues. We talked about this for a while and this was one issue which bothered us...the side edges appeared to be straight cut.

Z Wheat

[Zach Wheat]

Here is another pic of this card with 8 other Old Mill cards.

[brob28]

Nice scan for comparison Zack, shown within that group it's easy to see how these can be mistaken.

[Texxxx]

Look at it at a hard angle. Almost straight at the edge. Lots of times it will show it as black instead of brown looking.