Red to Orange in c. 1910 T and E cards.

[G1911]

Next, let's use this T218 Jimmy Gardner, which I bought, I don't know, 8 years ago hoping it was a cool misprint. It's not.

Both these cards Mecca 649's. Gardner should have a red drapery background. Gardner makes for a very good example in particular, because his correct card also has an orange area. Next to the "13" sign on the far right, the gap between it and the white border isn't red on our bottom card, it's orange. It's like that on every example with proper registration.

Now, Gardner "misprint" is not a real one, or a doctored card. It's just faded from exposure. The top corners remain some of their original red, where the card was secured into one of those binders popular at the time, where a picture was pushed in and secured by the corners. That part of the card wasn't as exposed, and so did not lose all of it's original color. Note that the orange card has the rest of the drapery faded to the exact same shade of orange as the gap next to the "13" sign. The fading from red orange makes it exactly match the orange coloring used on these cards. So here's a clear example of how it works, how these cards naturally fade into orange from their environment.