Why the scarcity of certain T206 Southern Leaguers ?

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Posted By: Scot

Jamie,



Thanks for the additional data. What strikes me is that the number of Old Mill Southerns remains relatively constant across Hindu yes-prints and Hindu no-prints, while the number of Piedmont 350s is much larger for the Hindu no-prints. This suggests that the Hindu no-prints experienced a longer print run with the Piedmont 350 back--but NOT with the Old Mill Southern back.

So it looks like we have the following distribution:

Subject Group . . . Brown Hindu . . . Old Mill S . . . . Piedmont 350

34 SAL/SA/VL . . . . Full print . . . . . Full print . . . . . Short print

8 SAL/SA/VL . . . . . No print . . . . . Full print . . . . . . Full print
+ 6 TL Subjects

A couple of notes:

1. The Southern Leaguer Paradox: The former 34 subjects were printed with a larger number of backs than the latter 14 subjects, but are less abundant. As Frank W. noted above, this is a paradoxical result. It is explained by the fact that the Piedmont 350 print run dwarfed the Hindu print run in sheer volume.

2. The 150/350 v. 350-Only Analogy: The former 34 subjects were released in 150 series, and therefore short-printed with the Piedmont 350 back--much like the 150/350 subjects were short-printed with 350 series backs. The latter 14 subjects were released in the 350 series, and therefore received a full print with the Piedmont 350 back--much like the 350-only subjects.

3. Piedmont 350 v. Old Mill Timing: The fact that all 48 subjects received a full print with the Old Mill Southern back but the former 34 subjects were short-printed with the Piedmont 350 back suggests that the Piedmont 350 print outlasted the Old Mill Southern print. For example, the Piedmont 350 print perhaps lasted until August 1910 whereas the Old Mill Southern print was terminated in May 1910, with the former 34 subjects being pulled from print in June 1910 but the latter 14 subjects continuing to be printed through August 1910. (These dates are just for the sake of argument).

Scot