T5 Pinkerton mystery cards

[Bicem]

Those are great Jeff, thanks for posting. Maybe others will come out of hiding too.

[T206Jim]

I am a year late to the party and my name is not Jeff, but it does start with a "J".

I acquired what I anticipated would be a unmounted T5 Chief Bender photo in the recent LOTG auction. I happen to own a beater T5 Bender and a Pinkerton blank back Bender as well. When I compared the new acquisition to the other two it became apparent I was dealing with a different animal altogether. My new acquisition comports with all of the attributes of a potential Pinkerton variant many of you have described in this thread.

Below is a photo I have taken of all three variants side by side. Note the new type is larger than the T5 with more wood grain at the bottom of the photo. There is silvering to the new type so it is definitely a photo and you can see the qualitative difference in the image between it and the blank back which is in decent condition.

I would concur with the opinion that this is some sort of subset that Pinkerton issued for the Philadelphia Athletics, perhaps to commemorate one of their World Championships. I know this thread is a year old, but did anyone else discover further evidence regarding this potential new Pinkerton variant.

[Bicem]

Nice find Jim! I assume it is thicker stock than an unmounted t5? Certainly looks like the mystery Pinkerton set to me!

Blank Back

[T206Jim]

Jeff, it is not flimsy and probably most akin to a thin postcard. So this makes at least 4 known examples, all Athletics, any more known to be out there?

[Leon]

This did a boomerang back from SGC unslabbed.....so it's still in my collection...(and I should say thanks to Jeff for this quite some time ago)

[Jacklitsch]

Don't know if this adds anything to the conversation. Blank back used as a postcard.

[T206Jim]

Ok, I'll take a stab at quantifying what I'll tentatively dub the "1911 T5 Pinkerton White Borders" variant.
1. The cards are 3 5/8 x 6 inches in size, larger than other variants.
2. They are real photo cards.
3. They are on cardboard stock similar to a postcard.
4. They have much larger white borders than the T5 cabinet photos or the blank back/scorecad backs.
5. The were printed in 1911,(T5s issued in 1911 and Leon's Baker postmark).
6. The set to date consists solely of Philadelphia Athletics players.
7. There are five known examples; Baker, Bender, Hartsel, Morgan & Oldring.
8. They have blank backs.
9. Speculation it may have been issued in to commemorate the 1910 or 1911 World Championship and perhaps in the Pennsylvania region given the postmark.

If this is truly a recently discovered Pinkerton variant it appears to be far more rare than any of the other Pinkerton variants. Can anyone add to contradict the theory posited above?