t206 reprints?

[dougscats]

Hi, Jeff.

Classic question.
Back in the early 2000's, Ray Piskadlo told me there were four basics to look for in distinguishing genuine T206's from reprints. As I remember:

The ink for the player's name is always brown [this can range greatly, however, from faded/light brown to blackish-brown];
the type-size of the player's name and team are different;
there must be borderlines around the picture, and these borderlines are distinctly drawn in ink, distinct from the player-image.

I can't remember the fourth point, though.

One thing I'd add, as advised by Dr. Cycleback [I trust you've visited his branch on Net54, Detecting Card Alteration and Reprints]: Get yourself a pocket microscope [inexpensively available on ebay], and look at the cards under that. The old [lithograph?] printing is quite beautiful sometimes and can't be replicated by modern machines. Also, you'll see how the ink-drawn lines are much darker at the edges where the ink coagulates.
Dr. Cycleback also says that general impressions count a lot: If you get a sense that something isn't right about a card, it probably isn't.

As to that bunch you're looking at, I was looking at them earlier [I need Karger] and never gave a thought as to them not being genuine.

Good luck.

Doug