Some of the mysteries and myths surrounding the most famous card in the hobby.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by steve B

To me, and I have no idea how many others even partly agree, leftover sheets would have been used either as press adjustment sheets, or to fill orders when a few cards were needed after the group they were originally intended for was shipped. The best evidence of this is the 150 only card that now has a single P350.

From every indication, fronts were printed, then backs. For Piedmont and SC, that back printing would have been almost continuous. For the brands using far fewer cards it may have been whatever was the current group of fronts at the time the order came in.
It's possible small brands or groups of small brands got their own sheets, but that's still something that's wide open for study.

Those T220 sheet fragments and the added Fullgraff info, is the first indication I've seen that any of the work was farmed out to other print shops. And it opens up a whole range of possibilities.

This is speculation, but I suspect "for the brands using far fewer cards it may have been whatever was the current group of fronts at the time the order came in" is exactly right; whatever the sheets currently being run were were printed up when that brand 'ordered' or however it was chosen that X brand would get Y card set. I doubt it was a pre-planned thing that, say, T42 would only appear on 25 of the 50 white border subjects with Emblem brand backs. I think this is indicative that some series were printed in waves; that, say, a big case of Piedmont packs sent to a distributor would not have all 50 subjects included in its packs, but only the same 25 subjects. Brands with only half weren't printed during both waves. There are strong indications, not absolute proof, of this wave type issuing in the ATC ledger.

As far as I am aware and remembering right now, before the T220 sheet we really only had the Ball letter that said it was American Lithographic doing the printing. Brett, Fullgraff's journal, Hyland's letter and the resulting other documents that were found mentioning some non-sport sets and silks were the first evidence (and they are conclusive evidence, this part is fact) that it was not AL directly doing the whole T card project with the ATC. It is deduction that AL farmed the work out to Brett and likely others; there is no hard evidence that Brett was a subsidiary partner of AL's silent monopoly, but I think that is probably the case and the anti-trust politics of the time mean we will never find a smoking gun document.

I think the find also suggests it may not have been just the ATC, but other non-cigarette makers involved in this project. The E229/D353 sheets originating with it, that bear a very similar list of names to those contracted with the ATC and their printers, are likely related. This connection is an opinion deduced from the evidence and not a proven fact.