T206 Reference / Reflections.....Tuesday Nite Trivia

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

I'll be the third wheel here for a second. If we think of T206 as the sum of a math (or maths, if you're an Anglophile) equation, it would look like this:

ALC + ATC + (national or regional retail distribution) + (1909-11) + "white border" format = T206

If one of those is absent, then the answer can't be T206. Leaving aside that T213-1 might be the same sum, the Ty Cobb most likely fails on the distribution and maybe date of issue. While Ty Cobb tins exist, linking them to an inserted card is problematic at best. Given the sheer volume of tobacco and other tins people saved - go to any antique mall if you have any doubt - tins of the most popular player of his day would've been saved as much as Prince Albert or whatever. Yet there are very few known, suggesting a limited retail presence. And, if the date is also ambiguous, that's another strike against Ty.

Hi Judson

There is no ambiguity regarding the date of the Ty Cobb Tobacco tin...…

Newspaper excerpt....The Reidsville Review....Nov 16 1909

"The Penn Tobacco Co. began this week placing on the market a new brand
of plug cut granulated smoking tobacco which will be encased in tin boxes.
The name of the brand is "Ty Cobb". It should be a fine seller, for there is
plenty of quality."


Furthermore, my research indicates that the date of the Ty Cobb card is definitely Circa..early 1910 for several reasons, two of which are:

1.....the red portrait Cobb was printed when American Lithographic started printing their 350 Series cards (Circa..late 1909 - early 1910).

2....Senator Richard Russell, whose tobacco card collection includes the Ty Cobb/TY COBB card, acquired his collection during 1909-1910. * *
He stopped smoking and collecting tobacco cards at age 14 when his parents enrolled him in the Gordon Military Institute in 1911.
The make up of Russell's 507-card T206 set indicates to us that the majority of his collecting days were in 1910.


* * note
Biography of Richard B. Russell, Jr.


TED Z
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