Amazing E95 Discovery

[Exhibitman]

Odds are that manufacturers would not have used Jeffries post-1910 to promote anything new, not after Jack Johnson whupped him on July 4th.

The E96/E80 mix seems clear from that card back and lends credence to a theory about print timing that I have long postulated for the E79-E80 issue. At first the different colored back prints threw me off, but I later thought I'd cracked the 'code' on the boxing cards. The E80 44-series back lists 44 subjects spread over 30 cards and the E79 back lists 19 different names and states that there are 8 other subjects. In actuality, the 27 E79 subjects are spread over 21 cards and there are only 11 cards known with the E80 44-series back. The 21 cards include a pair of “fist” cards showing the right and wrong way to clinch a fist. The fist cards are not listed on the seemingly complete E80 backs but without them the E79 count comes up short. I have verified that all 21 cards with the E79 27-subject backs are found in both red and black back print. What I have long thought happened--and what that miscut back suggests--is that E79 was made first with black inked backs, then reissued with red backs and 11 new cards to comprise E80, but with the fist cards not listed on the checklist. As for the baseball sets, the answer IMO is right on the bottom of the E96 back: "Previous series 25, making total issue 55." Given that the business notice [great find] states that the company issued the two sports together, personally, I would label all of the baseball and boxing sets as part of one unified multisport issue consisting of two series each of baseball and boxing cards, or at the very least combine the two sports into a pair of sets issued in two series.