t206 with no name

[steve B]

I'd agree with all of that.

I think I have a pretty good feel for what's actually old when I can hold it. Paper stuff usually, ceramics and glass not as well.

The day is coming when some very serious science will be available for a reasonable price. Depending on your budget and what's "reasonable" a lot of it already is.


Steve B

[Runscott]

The original testing I did with a 5x yielded the same results as the high-powered microscope. Generally I can say with confidence that with a 5x (sometimes without), it takes 3-5 seconds to spot a fake or a card that has been tampered with. Honestly, I expected to spot some sort of 'evidence' without needing a more powerful microscope. I am more of a 'nay-sayer' when it comes to T206 oddities that involve missing letters,etc., so I questioned everything I saw, but each imperfection in the white border was in line with similar imperfections in the baseline examples. No evidence of scratches, etc.

After the 5x results, I looked even more carefully under higher-magnification, convinced that something would show up, but it really just showed larger images of the imperfections in the white border. One of those things that is necessary, but just gives you a bit more confidence in what you already have found.

It is interesting to try to imagine how it would be possible to remove all traces of letters. But all you can really do is say that you can't find any evidence of such work.

I had a microscope when I was a teenager and looked at everything I could get hold of...things I can't really mention publicly.

[ullmandds]

I have to agree with Scott...in that my cursory evaluation which I did through my dental loupes at work...which are less than 4x magnification...combined with my cheapo vivitar illuminated magnifier...totalling maybe 12x magnification...I was confident the card did not appear altered in any way. I also have an illuminated/black light loupe that kevin saucier was advocating on the board a few years back which I use regularly.

[drcy]

First three photos of are where text would be on the card in question,
the fourth is of a the right vertical side white border on the same card for comparison
and the fifth is the bottom text on on a different T206
I have other shots, but figured this would be enough to illustrate.
One detail of note is there is a vertical wrinkle on the bottom of the card and crossing
where text would be (seen in one of the images), which, at first blush, would seem to
make it that much harder to remove text.