T206 520 set ?

[53toppscollector]

I did this quickly, so if I made a mistake, cut me a bit of slack.

I used the following scarcity rating for the backs from Scot Reader

1. Brown Lenox
2. Broad Leaf 460
3. Drum
4. Uzit
5. Red Hindu
6. Black Lenox
7. Broad Leaf 350
8. Carolina Brights
9. Piedmont 460/42
10. American Beauty 350 No Frame
11. American Beauty 460
12. Cycle 460
13. Brown Hindu
14. American Beauty 350 Frame
15. Sovereign 350 Apple Green
16. Sovereign 460
17. Cycle 350
18. Sovereign 150
19. Tolstoi
20. El Principe de Gales
21. Sweet Caporal 460/25
22. Sovereign 350 Forest Green
23. Old Mill
24. Old Mill Southern
25. Polar Bear


If you start at Brown Lenox and move down, eliminating cards till you get to the end, the most "common" back you need is Polar Bear for Demmitt and O'Hara STL variations, and then it is Old Mill SL for those printed without Hindu Brown backs, and then an Old Mill BBS. As most would guess, it belongs to Elberfeld Washington Portrait, which was printed only with Piedmont 350, SC 350/30, SC 350/25 and Old Mill Backs.

Here is the full rundown:

Lenox Brown: 21
Broadleaf 460: 27
Drum: 104
Uzit: 27
Hindu Red: 14
Lenox Black: 11
Broadleaf 350: 72
Carolina Brights: 24
Hindu Brown: 136
AB 350 With Frame: 5
Sovereign 350 Apple Green: 4
Sovereign 150: 48
Tolstoi: 4
EPDG: 2
Sovereign 350 Forest Green: 4
Old Mill: 1
Old Mill Southern League: 14
Polar Bear: 2

[53toppscollector]

One thing to note, however, is that not all Sovereign 150s and Old Mills are created equally.

For a lot of the Print Group 1 subjects, the Old Mill is much much harder than the Sovereign. In some cases, there are 4 or 5x more Sov150s than Old Mills.

[Rhotchkiss]

Don’t forget the brown old mills, blue old mills, and blank backs!

[HobokenJon]

To do this right, you’d really need to look at the different pops subject by subject. Plenty of subjects in the 150-350 series are much tougher with Old Mill backs than brown Hindu or other rare backs. Likewise, the toughest back in the 350-only series for numerous subjects is Tolstoi — even tougher than Drum.

[MR RAREBACK]

If we shave some of the harder backs down what would it look like say for instance
Lenox brown 2
Broadleaf 460 4
Drum 8
Uzit 8
Hindu red 8
Lenox black 20
Broadleaf 20
Carolina 20
Hindu 80

[stutor]

Great question. Several cards aren’t possible with only the backs listed in the original post. Cobb portrait green and Crawford throwing for instance. There are several of these. As HobokenJon said, the 150/350 OMs would most definitely be a requisite part of such a set.

[nineunder71]

This is very interesting.

James, PM sent regarding a couple questions on the bottom half of your Post #2.

As Sonny mentioned, my first thought is there should be at least 2 OMs (not to mention any of those super tough Print Group 1’s that have lower pop than any other back): Elberfeld portrait Wash & Cobb Green (much tougher than Sov150)

Also, I have less than 7 total Sovereign 350s for my off-back set and I think those subjects should be easy to figure out. Probably an instance like the Cobb Green.

The overall numbers there James, really look great, thanks for posting that research! As others stated, wow it would be a ton of research to start actually drilling into the exact total population of each subject’s rare backs, but it would be extremely neat to have this tallied somewhere.

Thanks for the post and look forward to seeing where this goes

Colton

[Rhotchkiss]

Originally Posted by stutor

Great question. Several cards aren’t possible with only the backs listed in the original post. Cobb portrait green and Crawford throwing for instance. There are several of these. As HobokenJon said, the 150/350 OMs would most definitely be a requisite part of such a set.

Sonny, like you know anything about a complete 520 set of tough t206 combos

[sreader3]

Originally Posted by 53toppscollector

I did this quickly, so if I made a mistake, cut me a bit of slack.

I used the following scarcity rating for the backs from Scot Reader

1. Brown Lenox
2. Broad Leaf 460
3. Drum
4. Uzit
5. Red Hindu
6. Black Lenox
7. Broad Leaf 350
8. Carolina Brights
9. Piedmont 460/42
10. American Beauty 350 No Frame
11. American Beauty 460
12. Cycle 460
13. Brown Hindu
14. American Beauty 350 Frame
15. Sovereign 350 Apple Green
16. Sovereign 460
17. Cycle 350
18. Sovereign 150
19. Tolstoi
20. El Principe de Gales
21. Sweet Caporal 460/25
22. Sovereign 350 Forest Green
23. Old Mill
24. Old Mill Southern
25. Polar Bear


If you start at Brown Lenox and move down, eliminating cards till you get to the end, the most "common" back you need is Polar Bear for Demmitt and O'Hara STL variations, and then it is Old Mill SL for those printed without Hindu Brown backs, and then an Old Mill BBS. As most would guess, it belongs to Elberfeld Washington Portrait, which was printed only with Piedmont 350, SC 350/30, SC 350/25 and Old Mill Backs.

Here is the full rundown:

Lenox Brown: 21
Broadleaf 460: 27
Drum: 104
Uzit: 27
Hindu Red: 14
Lenox Black: 11
Broadleaf 350: 72
Carolina Brights: 24
Hindu Brown: 136
AB 350 With Frame: 5
Sovereign 350 Apple Green: 3
Sovereign 150: 48
Tolstoi: 5
EPDG: 2
Sovereign 350 Forest Green: 4
Old Mill: 1
Old Mill Southern League: 14
Polar Bear: 2

Wow nice job James! To those curious I didn’t include Brown Old Mill and Blank in my list because they are hand-cut. I’m not sure what to make of Blue Old Mill. Withholding judgment on that one.