E90-1 "shaded" back variations?

[steve B]

Very cool stuff and fascinating too. A few thoughts now that we're a bit into this.

I guessed earlier that the shaded ones were from a late print run, where maybe they cut corners and didn't clean or replace the plates. I'm still leaning towards this. Especially if all the shaded ones are cards that are harder to find.

So what's the list of shaded cards? Does it match with the list Brian had?
There were 16 there, which is a nice number for a sheet, but doesn't divide into the 120 card set all that well. 12 or 24 works better. The list had a few that are shown in the 2010 standard catalog as being commons, but I know of at least one mistake on that list.

I think in that era they would have used actual stones rather than plates. The stones lasted a bit longer if I recall things properly.

And like Joe D said, a dry stone or plate would give the shading effect just like a worn plate. I think the dry stone/plate is more likely. All the shading is in small areas that the water would evaporate from more quickly.

Steve B

[ubiqty]

I went through all of my 117 e90-1 cards and the only ones with shaded areas as you are looking for are Phelps (posted earlier) and Tenney.
Thanks,
Scott.

[ScottFandango]

thanks for checking!

those 2 are confirmed!

[judsonhamlin]

In looking through my 67 E90-1's (finally), the only two that are convincingly shaded (most obvious in the baseball) are Irwin and Schlitzer. I also noted what appear to be minor variances in the lettering of "BASEBALL SERIES" across the top of the card.