1898-99 National Copper Plates and 1899-1900 M101-1 The Sporting News

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Originally Posted by Baseball Rarities

Personally, I think that there are three distinct issues:

National Copper Plates - issued booklet form starting in 1898. Each booklet contains 5 players. These were not individual "cards,' and would have to be torn out of the booklet to display individually.

M101-1 The Sporting News with advertising at the top - issued as a supplement to their weekly newspaper in 1898 and 1899.

M101-1 The Sporting News 50 subject "portfolio" cards with no advertising issued in 1899. Due to the lack of advertising, many collectors refer to these as National Copper Plates. I think that this is a misnomer since they came housed in a portfolio with The Sporting News advertising on it and, AFAIK, were only offered by the newspaper as a premium for their subscribers. Each of these features two holes at the left border so that they could be bound by a string. These portfolios could be taken apart without damage to the cards so that each could be displayed individually.

I would love to hear other's opinions on this set.

I would agree with this. BUT I think you meant to show M101-1 Sporting News w/ Advertising at top as being issued as a supplement weekly from 1899 to 1900 (not 1898 to 1899).