Survey: Did Your Conroy Lose Its Stripes?

[bunst]

My Piedmont 350 has stripes

[brianp-beme]

Always willing to help when it comes to research...I have a Piedmont 150 and and a Sweet Caporal 150 factory 30, and they have both earned their stripes.

Brian

[Abravefan11]

Hi Scot -

I believe the Old Mill Conroy cards don't have stripes. I have seen two but don't own one. Maybe a board member can confirm this.

The Piedmont 350 is a good example of how there were multiple printings of Piedmont 350 cards. Those with the stripes were printed in the early part of the 350 Series and those without in the later part.

[steve B]

SC 350 F25 no stripes.

It looks like this is another one that was reworked between 150 and 350.

It's much more extensive than just the hat stripes. The later version also lost the border between the left side of the arm and the green of the field and the black edge at the top of the shoulder.

Steve B

[sreader3]

Survey results added to OP.

The split so far does seem to be a function of print timing: stripes for most of the print run and no stripes at the tail-end.

The theory offered that ALC/ATC deliberately removed the stripes in response to Conroy's team change from New York to Washington is very interesting, although if that is true one has to wonder why the stripes returned to Conroy's cap in the later issued 350/460 "With Bat" card.

Thanks to all who have participated.

[sreader3]

Nice catch about the missing black edges. I would be interested to hear from printing experts whether they think these changes are the result of intentional removal or just a print fluke.

[frankbmd]

Two Wids both striped, P150 & P350

[steve B]

Originally Posted by sreader3

Nice catch about the missing black edges. I would be interested to hear from printing experts whether they think these changes are the result of intentional removal or just a print fluke.

If it was just one card without them I'd say it was just underinked. And the scans I've seen of the no stripes and mine show other signs of the black being inked lightly or the transfers not transfering well. Like the weak lower frame line, and mine has nearly no upper line for the top of the hat. So far it looks like all the no stripes share the same lack of borders and weak lower frames, so I'm thinking those are changes made in production rather than just bad printing.

The scans aren't good enough, but there may also be a third version with a narrower line between the arm and field.
Other maybe differences are possibly more blue in the right side of the lower arm, and a small difference in the green just below the knee at the right border. Mine has both of those. The blue I'm almost sure is a difference, the green below the knee not so sure.

While looking at the Conroys on Ebay I spotted a few other small differences. One might be just a mistake but seems consistent, the other looks like an intentional repair. All on the with stripes version.
The first is a gap in the border near the upper right corner.
The second is what looks like a manually repaired lower border, although I didn't see a second one or one with a lower border gap in that spot.

The 350s with stripes are interesting. I think they might indicate continuous production, or are from sheets leftover from the 150 printings that later got used up when 350 began. So technically wrongbacks.

I'll have to get a stripes Conroy to compare them up close.

Steve B