t206 size/trim question...

[shaunsteig]

Originally Posted by cfc1909

"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."

Can you prove this? How do you know this?

Not sure if you're referring to my first sentence there or the second.

As to the first -- the AB backs -- that's something that I've known for a little while, although can't quite recall where I gained that knowledge from. So I did a little search, and came across this passage from Scot Reader's "Inside T206":

• Manufacturing tolerances make exacting specification of a “standard” size for a T206 card difficult. A typical size is roughly 1 7/16” x 2 5/8”. T206 specimens exhibiting the American Beauty reverse are an exception. They were cut thinner to enable them to fit within narrower American Beauty cigarette packs.

My search, though, also discovered a prior thread on this board disputing that reason for the thinner ABs: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...=122216&page=2. Regardless, the original point remains -- the ABs were deliberately of a different size, from the factory and not from trimming, than the other backs.

As to the second, since a given factory printed several different backs, it stands to reason that their technical variances were no different among the backs. The above quote could also apply. My experience is similar, at least among the "less-common" backs, although I have little knowledge of the truly rare ones. So I don't have "proof" for that statement, perhaps another board member can enlighten.

Thanks,
--S