t206 size/trim question...

[shaunsteig]

The printing process of the T206s one-hundred years ago was imprecise enough to allow for variations in card size, particularly in height. The quality-control mechanisms in place then weren't as sophisticated as cards made nowadays. So there do exist variations in card size. And similarly, there's variation in the centering of the card. Your Young is centered lower than the Cobb, and the Cobb is taller. Neither of which indicates that it's been trimmed.

One point is that you can't rely on the card measuring as "regulation" size as proof that it wasn't trimmed -- you might be looking at a card that was originally slightly oversized and is now trimmed to enhance its corners and now is merely "normal" size.

I've never heard that the variability in card size, as cut at the factory, was related to the back, or the scarcity of the back. The only exception would be the American Beauty cards, which were uniformly cut thinner because the tobacco packs for that brand were thinner than the other brands. Otherwise, all the brands should have been subject to the same issues for card size and centering.

The principal tasks of the third-party graders are to verify the authenticity of a card (ie it's not a fake or reprint), confirm that it hasn't been altered (most commonly is the question of trimming), and then if the first two criteria are passed to then grade the card numerically according to their standards. I consider both SGC and PSA as highly reliable, and so would consider any numerically graded card from them as untrimmed, which is why I generally stay away from raw cards of any significant value. That's not to say that either couldn't make a mistake. But on the surface, the fact that both cards received a numeric grade should provide reassurance that they weren't trimmed.

Hope that helps,
--S