Revisiting the T206 Wagner "strip"

[barrysloate]

Ted- Leon posted that the previous owner of the card, Wayne Varner, said with certainty that it is a continuous strip. He owned it before it was slabbed and held it in his hand. Doesn't the controversy end right there? Can one of the original owners of the card be wrong? Seems like we've passed the point of it being debatable. That cinches it for me. Don't you agree with that?

[GoSoxBoSox]

Originally Posted by tedzan

The color differences in of the 5 images with respect to each other contradicts everything we know about American Litho's 6-color printing process.

As has been stated in this thread already almost anything can be done during a pre-production trial run. You yourself have stated these American Litho guys were the best in the business at the time. Doesn't that mean to you that they "might" be able to print outside of that normal production process if they want to for proofing purposes?

Originally Posted by tedzan

That, and other more subtle aspects of this
artifact leads us to believe it is not exactly what it is advertised as being.

I believe those other subtle aspects have been spoken about as well. I know I spoke of them in my post. It's very clear to me, after closely examining the artifact, this just cannot be 6 pieces glued together. I'd be shocked if I was proven wrong in this particular case.

Ted - is there any chance at all that you and your friends who examined this piece just "might" be wrong this one time? Just maybe?

I know I'm not perfect so I could be wrong. The professionals at SGC agree with me though so I feel like what I saw was most likely correct. I can only add that if SGC said I was wrong and that this was a creation by somebody that I'd have a good laugh because I was fooled. They get paid to know more about this than I do so I'd go with their professional opinion. I would think they would simply not holder the strip if they were unsure. Their reputation isn't worth the $50 holdering fee.

[barrysloate]

Ted- I do agree there are anomalies regarding this strip, and even to this day we are still not certain exactly how it was printed and presented to Wagner. But with Leon's post #74, at least the mystery of whether it's a continuous strip or five glued cards has been resolved. That was my only point.

[FrankWakefield]

Barry, I don't see how Leon's post, #74, resolves that it is a continuous strip. I doesn't resolve it for me... If it does for you then it does, for you, but not for everyone. And in that post, is Leon saying that Ted makes crap up, and/or that Ted can never admit being wrong?


Whatever it really is, however it came into being, it does seem to me to be something from just before the ATT's distribution of the white border tobacco cards, I agree that it is an artifact in T206 lore. I still think it's a preproduction paste up assemblage of what could be.

[barrysloate]

Frank- I'm not going to speak for Leon, but Wayne Varner, who owned it for a period of time, said with certainty that it was a continuous strip. Where else but to the owner of the card would one go to settle this argument? Again, what am I missing?

[GoSoxBoSox]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Frank- I'm not going to speak for Leon, but Wayne Varner, who owned it for a period of time, said with certainty that it was a continuous strip. Where else but to the owner of the card would one go to settle this argument? Again, what am I missing?

How about SGC, Barry? You know. The premier pre-war grading company in our hobby that said it is an authentic proof. Thus, not a creation.

[barrysloate]

SGC's word holds a huge amount of weight also. However, they haven't said anything about it and likely won't. Wayne, to his credit, made a statement based on being its former owner. That means a lot to me with regard to this debate.

[botn]

SGC merely identified it as AUTHENTIC but did not define on the flip what exactly that meant. Authentic only means the item is a period piece and identifiable as relating to a certain issue referenced on the flip. What we do know is that it is a strip, whether you feel it is a post production continuous strip or made up of 5 pre production card's obverses mounted onto some kind of backing. Given that this is a unique item and nobody knows exactly what it was made for or how it was supposed to be made, not sure you can expect a grading company to do much more. We have all seen items in both SGC and PSA holders being called Authentic even after going through massive restoration. Obviously this "strip" has not but calling it anything other than Authentic would not be prudent giving there is no other example to compare it to.