The '69 Airbrush Variation Train Keeps A-Rollin'...

[JollyElm]

I was looking at the very well known 1969 Perranoski and Popovich airbrushed cap variations and I figured with the huge number of blacked out hats from that year, there must be some other variations waiting to be discovered in these cards. And boom!! I hit on one. Not sure if this one has been revealed before, but I know I've never seen anything about it. Check out card #202, Don Wilson (and try to forget about his--and his son's--sad demise at a young age). Although there's not a huge difference between them, there were clearly two different 'airbrushings' happening at Topps. Perhaps they were on the same printing sheet in different spots? Subtle differences are evident along virtually the entire black edge, but it is most readily apparent on the right side where a bump suddenly appears on the smooth outline of the hat.

Check out the circled area here...

1969DonWilson3.jpg

…and then watch as the differences pop right out at ya...



The 'bumpy' card is a little tougher to find than 'ole smoothie,' but there are plenty of each out there.

[The-Cardfather]

Nice catch, Darren.

But I thought that this was Don Wilson - from the Jack Benny show.
(Yes. I'm showing my age.)

[JollyElm]

And we have another one…

Joe Nossek, #143, comes with a pretty smooth, airbrushed hat and also with a very rough and bumpy hat. It's most easily discernible at that first rounded ridge and in front of the bat...

1969JoeNossek3.jpg

And here it is in action...



The smooth hat version is more plentiful, but again, there are plenty of both variations out there.

[JollyElm]

Whoa!! Hold the phone!! I've actually found yet a third variation of the Nossek card:

1. Relatively smooth hat.
2. Very rough, bumpy hat.
3. Smoothish hat with a spiky top middle section. (The black on this one reaches higher up than the other two versions.)

1969JoeNossek4.jpg




The version with the spiky middle section is much, much tougher to find than the other two.