Some pretty cool new(?) 1963 Topps Printing Error/Variations

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Kevvyg1026

I know that the series 6 wrong backs have the backs printed upside down relative to what the regular back should be. What about the others you have? Are the series 1 , 2, and 3 wrong backs correctly oriented or are they upside down?

From what I have seen, first series wrong backs resulted from the backs being switched on the giant 264 card sheet, or Slit A and Slit B as you refer to them, and all of the other 1963 series wrong backs resulted from the backs being flipped upside down, which is understandable with how the 63's were printed. The two exceptions are the first series S. Williams/Hendley wrong back, which I suspect may be from a 3 card salesman sample panel, and the Worthington/Tartabull wrong back which must have come from a very rare 7th series front sheet mistakenly printed with a 6th series back.

[Kevvyg1026]

If the first series backs are correctly oriented, then the two slits were oriented the way they are shown in the attached image. If the wrong backs are upside down, then one of the slits is flipped 180 degrees from that shown.

1963_series1_full.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

While attempting to ascertain the printing pattern (slit configuration) for 1963 Topps series 5, came across this oddity for card # 395.

1963_395_double_back_print.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

Just in case there is a question regarding which print run the yellow based checklist (#431) was issued, I found this marked card on ebay recently.

1963_431_marked.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

After reading the article by Mr. Vrechek regarding the new 1963 series 5 variations, I looked for any uncut or miscut material for these cards. What I found suggests that the Series 5 printing looked like the following:

Slit A:
R/G
R/B U/D
R/Y
R/G U/D
Y/R
Y/R UD
G/O
G/Y U/D
R/G
R/B U/D
R/Y
R/G U/D

Slit B
Y/R
Y/R UD
G/O
G/Y U/D
R/G
R/B U/D
R/Y
R/G U/D
Y/R
Y/R UD
G/O
G/Y U/D

The one stripe version of the McBean card, along with the other variations associated with that, would be in the upside-down red border, green inset rows.

Based on this print configuration, the R/B, R/Y, Y/R (& Y/R upside down), G/Y, and G/O would all be printed 3x each across the sheet so 66 cards 3x each (198 cards), while the R/G would be printed 6x each (3 right side up, and 3 upside down). The variations would occur in equal numbers. So, no SPs exists in the series 5 printing.

[Kevvyg1026]

As mentioned in an earlier post, the layout (color-wise) for 1963 series 5 has been determined. Although there are 77 cards in the series, which normally would produce some SPs, for this series, what was found was that the Red border, green inset cards were DPs. However, these R-G card were the ones with variations (see Vrechek article). So, there are 88 unique cards in the series (11 RG normal, 11 RG variation, 22 YR, 11 RB, 11 RY, 11 GO, & 11 GY). Each row of these cards was printed 3 times across the 2 slits.

Fortunately, there are some uncut 6, 8, and 9 card panels from this series that occasionally pop up for sale. In addition, there are a few miscuts that have also been made available. With the significant help of Cliff Bowman, the following slit patterns for this series were deduced.

The slit patterns and card locations are as shown in the attachment.

1963_series_5_layout.jpg