t205s with green borders

[Rob D.]

Whatever you do, if you have T205s whose borders have turned green, don't send them to Kruger Industrial Smoothing. They'll screw them up, just like they did the Statue of Liberty.

(Just for you, Joe.)

[Wite3]

They are the result of exposure to moisture and have tarnished. The gold borders are indeed a metal that was applied last to the card. Underneath the gold borders is usually yellow, pink, or white print. I have held two different cards without the gold borders and it is very obvious. I have owned and still own many green bordered cards and they are almost always in poor condition. Hope this helps.

Joshua

[brianp-beme]

Good golly I own a bunch of green borders...I guess this would be as good an indicator as any that my collection could be considered archival (the arch-rival of Bruces everywhere).

Brian

[drc]

The T205 borders would have originally been as bright as a brand new penny. Even the darker, brownish borders have tarnished with age.

[Exhibitman]

Here is a T205 where the gold ran out during printing. It is not green underneath:

[barrysloate]

So then the green borders are merely gold borders that have become discolored. But the green also have a different texture than the gold, so some of the upper layer has disappeared.

[drc]

This is merely speculation, but the T205s had a big and lengthy print run. It's plausible they used different metal alloys at different points, and the type of tarnish might relate to the particular alloy.