Original 12-card horizontal E91 strip may reveal 1909 printing format

[brianp-beme]

To review: because this strip contains players from the A's, Giants and Cubs, it would have to be either from the E91A issue or the E91B issue. The players from this strip are listed below, first as how the image would be identified as if it were from the E91A set, and second the identification as if it were from the E91B set.

Listed from left to right (players names spelled exactly as on front of card):

Set E91A Set E91B

Frederick L. Hartsel / Frederick L. Hartsel
Frederick L. Hartsel / Frederick L. Hartsel
Daniel F. Murphy (2b) / Edw. Collins
Harry Davis / Harry Davis
Joseph F. Tinker / Joseph F. Tinker
John J. McGraw / John J. McGraw
Ralph O. Seybold / Dan Murphy (RF)
Daniel F. Murphy (2b) / Edw. Collins
Harry Davis / Harry Davis
Joseph F. Tinker / Joseph F. Tinker
John J. McGraw / John J. McGraw
Ralph O. Seybold / Dan Murphy (RF)

As can be seen, there are two basic differences in the lists: the 3rd and 8th player from the left are identified as Daniel F. Murphy in the E91A set, and as Edw. Collins in the E91B set, and the 7th from left as well as the last player are identified as Ralph O. Seybold in the E91A set, and as Dan Murphy in the E91B set.

Despite the blurry name designations as seen in the scan (are these guys in the witness protection program, or what? Perhaps they are, or feel they need to be, since they are included in the widely--but wrongly--despised E91 sets), I think it is fairly obvious, due to the spacing of the above mentioned player's names and inclusion of middle initial, that this strip is from the E91A issue.

By the way, the 12 card wide theory is interesting for this set. Perhaps the sheet was 12 cards wide by 11 high, thus making it a 132 card sheet, which could possibly indicate that each of the 33 cards of the E91A set were printed 4 times per sheet.

Brian