reprint wagner piedmonts

[Archive]

Posted By: boxingcardman

I think Scott B. (hi Scott) has hit the nail on the nose: "It is 100% legit and is in fact printers scrap." One thing we know printers did was take useless sheets and run them through the press to clear the press before starting a different run. We also know that these cards sometimes escaped the factory, either inadvertently in packs or purposefully taken by workers in sheets or cut up cards. Once the order came down to get rid of Wagner do you think the printer was going to throw away the sheets on hand? No. He would use them just like any other discarded sheet. A few made it out, it seems, is the most likely explanation of the Piedmont Wagner.

For the conspiracy theorists out there, think in practical terms about what you are suggesting w/r/t reprinting: find the printer who did the T206 cards, get the printer to give you the plates for the cards (how do you explain that one--bribery, threats, lies?), get stocks and inks that match the period, find a press that matched the period, do a print run, get it cut to specs, and for what? At a time when people were giving away cards? It does not make sense. Think about it: no internet to research, no modern travel to move about easily on this hunt, and no funds to pursue a quest like that (the men in question were not wealthy--far from it). And think about the men accused of this: the collectors who are accused of fomenting the greatest fraud in the history of the hobby are also the people who organized it and established it. Why would they do that?

I strongly believe that the simplest explanation is generally the right one. The simplest explanation here is that when the word came down to pull Wagner, the Piedmont cards had been run and those sheets were kept around and used for various scrap tasks. A few cards survived, including the two Wagners. One was on a sheet or partial sheet and cut up and so forth, the other was cut early on and survived in a vintage collection.