Identifying E101 and E102 purely by the front (E8, E78 tie in)

[gabrinus]

Thanks guys...I think y'all are definitely holding more cards than me now...don't think my collection was ever like Richard or Macrae's...Jerry

[Jobu]

We can rule out e102 based on the OP's post as that issue doesn't have Cy Young. If we assume that these wrong backs were printed at the same time as the baseball sheet (as opposed to one side or the other having been printed a year or more apart), then looking at the dates might help:

1909 E92 Croft's Cocoa
1909 E92 Dockman
1909 E92 Croft's Candy
1909 E92 Nadja
1909 E101 Anonymous
1909 D355 Niagara Baking
1910 E105 Mello Mint
1910 E78 Anonymous Prize Fighters
1910 E26 Dockman & Son Menagerie
1910 E8 Battle Ship USS Connecticut
1912-1916 T216 Kotton-Mino-Virginia Extra

Both wrong backs, E78 and E26, are listed as 1910 issues (not sure about the certainty of those dates). 1910 is also the date for the other front, E8 Battle Ships. There is only one baseball set listed as being issued in 1910, E105 Mello Mint. I looked at DJ's full baseball player list (Cy Young, Magee, Kleinow, Lobert, Wagner batting, Murphy, McGraw, Bemis, and Shean) and all are in E105. So it is possible that these are all wrong-backed E105s.

[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by Jobu

We can rule out e102 based on the OP's post as that issue doesn't have Cy Young. If we assume that these wrong backs were printed at the same time as the baseball sheet (as opposed to one side or the other having been printed a year or more apart), then looking at the dates might help:

1909 E92 Croft's Cocoa
1909 E92 Dockman
1909 E92 Croft's Candy
1909 E92 Nadja
1909 E101 Anonymous
1909 D355 Niagara Baking
1910 E105 Mello Mint
1910 E78 Anonymous Prize Fighters
1910 E26 Dockman & Son Menagerie
1910 E8 Battle Ship USS Connecticut
1912-1916 T216 Kotton-Mino-Virginia Extra

Both wrong backs, E78 and E26, are listed as 1910 issues (not sure about the certainty of those dates). 1910 is also the date for the other front, E8 Battle Ships. There is only one baseball set listed as being issued in 1910, E105 Mello Mint. I looked at DJ's full baseball player list (Cy Young, Magee, Kleinow, Lobert, Wagner batting, Murphy, McGraw, Bemis, and Shean) and all are in E105. So it is possible that these are all wrong-backed E105s.

While that makes sense looking at the commonly held date of each set, e105 doesn't make sense as they are a complete different card stock and slightly different size (e105 are thinner and slightly smaller).

[Jobu]

It could be that the wrong backs were in the scrap pile on their thicker paper and the printers used them to do a test run for the E105 fronts though - they likely wouldn't have cared about the paper type for a test run that was bound for the garbage.

[G1911]

Unfortunately, the date of E78 is made up - just something hobbyists have claimed to be true without an evidentiary basis. There's no way to know if it's 1908 or 1910 or 1912. Same for E26. I think E8 is in the same boat; there is no evidence for 1910 as opposed to another year in this period.

I would expect it is more likely it was just a test sheet, or they ran the wrong sheet(s) through the printer for the second side than that E78 was on the same exact shape and the sheet was correct but run upside down. This can't be eliminated though, it could look like E96.

[Leon]

The D355 isn't as much of a wrong back as it is an E101 with a back stamp on it. Great conversation and I wish I had my wrong back collection again. Such is life...

Originally Posted by Jobu

We can rule out e102 based on the OP's post as that issue doesn't have Cy Young. If we assume that these wrong backs were printed at the same time as the baseball sheet (as opposed to one side or the other having been printed a year or more apart), then looking at the dates might help:

1909 E92 Croft's Cocoa
1909 E92 Dockman
1909 E92 Croft's Candy
1909 E92 Nadja
1909 E101 Anonymous
1909 D355 Niagara Baking
1910 E105 Mello Mint
1910 E78 Anonymous Prize Fighters
1910 E26 Dockman & Son Menagerie
1910 E8 Battle Ship USS Connecticut
1912-1916 T216 Kotton-Mino-Virginia Extra

Both wrong backs, E78 and E26, are listed as 1910 issues (not sure about the certainty of those dates). 1910 is also the date for the other front, E8 Battle Ships. There is only one baseball set listed as being issued in 1910, E105 Mello Mint. I looked at DJ's full baseball player list (Cy Young, Magee, Kleinow, Lobert, Wagner batting, Murphy, McGraw, Bemis, and Shean) and all are in E105. So it is possible that these are all wrong-backed E105s.

[G1911]

To see if we may get any information on dating E78 and some baseball issue, I took a look at E8's checklist and looked up each ship, noting its commission date and any significant change in naming or scrapping of the ship between 1908-1912, when the cards are almost certainly printed. The results are most interesting for the U.S.S. Connecticut, though a ship may well have used a slightly old name, attention to detail was probably not perfect for a minor card release that was likely just a premium. The results are shown in the table below (which probably won't format on Net54):
U.S.S. Alabama - 1900
U.S.C. Albany - Cruiser in commission 1900-1904, 1907-1913, 1914, and 1916-1922.
U.S.S. Brooklyn - 1896
U.S.S. Charleston - 1905
U.S.S. Connecticut - 1903, renamed the U.S.S. Tonopah on March 2, 1909. Another Connecticut existed at this time but this one seems to match the card art and the larger battleship does not.
U.S.S. Indiana - 1895
U.S.S. Iowa - 1897
U.S.S. Kearsarge - 1898
U.S.S. Kentucky - 1898
U.S.S. Maine - 1901
U.S.S. Massachusetts - 1896
U.S.S. Minneapolis - 1894
U.S. Monitor Puritan - 1896, Monitor is the class of ship
U.S.S. New Jersey - 1906
U.S.C. New Orleans and Torpedo Boat Somers - both 1898
U.S.C. New York - 1893, renamed the Saratoga on February 16, 1911
U.S.S. Olympia - 1895
U.S.S. Oregon - 1896
U.S.S. Pennsylvania - 1903, renamed the U.S.S. Pittsburgh in 1912.
U.S.S. Philadelphia - 1890
U.S.S. Rhode Island - 1906
U.S.S. Texas - 1895, renamed the U.S.S. San Marcos in February 1911 and later that same year was used for target practice and sunk.
U.S.C. Topeka - 1898
U.S.S. Virginia - 1906
To be strictly correct, the set was released in 1906 or later, and before March 2, 1909 when the U.S.S. Connecticut was renamed. Other ships were renamed or scrapped in 1911. This may be indicate of a relatively early release date in 1909 among cards catalogued as E sets. I would be surprised if it was as early as 1908, but this is entirely possible. Not enough is known to responsibly draw any firm conclusions at this juncture.