Sovereign 350 Apple Green Backs Question

[tedzan]

Here goes as succinctly as I can, so stay with me. Why American Litho. printed a series of 66 cards in their SOVEREIGN issue with this "apple green" ink
is a mystery. What is not a mystery is why these 66 subjects were selected.

Now, 100 years later, this subtle change in green color reveals to us that American Litho. selected these 66 subjects from the 183 Major Leaguers in the
350 series to continue printing them with 460 series backs (possibly due to the popularity of these ballplayers). Furthermore, the fact that the Sovereign
backs on these cards are not identified as "350-460 Subjects" (as Piedmont and Sweet Caporal backs are) suggests to us that this was done in the initial
planning stage of their 350/460 series cards (circa Summer 1910).

Some of the HOFer's in this series..................................



..................apple green backs

..................normal green back


......350 Series common............................\/........................................Some more HOFer's in this series........................................\/





FURTHERMORE..........

Three of these cards (Joe Doyle, Simon Nicholls, and Bob Rhoades) were never printed with 460 backs since their Major League careers ended prior to the
460 series press runs. Red Kleinow (NY) and Frank Smith (Chicago) were not printed as 350/460 cards since they were in transition [both being traded to
Boston (AL) prior to 460 printing]. Supporting evidence of this theory is that these 5 subjects do not exist with the AB 350 (frame) back. Which of course,
if they did, would contradict this entire premise....since the AB 350 (frame) back is strictly found with 350-only cards.

Subsequently, these exact cards of Red Kleinow and Frank Smith were printed with a variety of 460 series backs with their captions reflecting their trades
to Boston . However, the "Boston" versions of Kleinow and Smith were not printed with SOVEREIGN 460 backs.



\/..............................................The intended 5 subjects for the 350/460 series that were not printed with 460 backs..........................................\/





List of apple green backs in the SOVEREIGN set........66 cards

Ames (hands over head)
Baker
Bender (no trees)
Berger
Bradley (bat)
M. Brown (Chicago)
Burch (fielding)
Chance (yellow portrait)
Chase (blue portrait)
Chase (dark cap)
Cobb (red portrait)
Cobb (bat off)
Conroy (bat)
Davis (A's)
Crawford (bat)
Donlin (bat)
Doolan (bat)
Dougherty (arm in air)
Downey (bat)
Joe Doyle (arms over head)
Larry Doyle (bat)
Elberfeld (Wash.-fielding)
Evers (bat-yellow sky)
Griffith (bat)
Jennings (one hand)
Jennings (two hands)
Johnson (pitching)
Jordan (bat)
Joss (pitching)
Kleinow (NY-catching)
Konetchy (glove low)
Lajoie (bat)
Lake (no ball)
Leach (cap)
Leifield (bat)
Magee (bat)
Manning (pitching)
Mathewson (dark cap)
McIntyre (Brooklyn & Chicago)
McQuillan (bat)
Mullin (bat)
Murphy (bat)
Nichols (bat)
O'Leary (hands/knees)
Overall (yellow sky)
Pelty (vertical)
Pfeister (throwing)
Reulbach (no glove)
Rhoades (arm extended)
Rucker (throwing)
Seymour (throwing)
F. Smith (Chicago-white cap)
Snodgrass (catching)
Stahl (glove)
Steinfeldt (bat)
Street (catching)
Sweeney (fielding)
Tinker (bat off)
Wagner (bat on right)
White (pitching)
Wilhelm (bat)
Willetts
Willis (bat)
Willis (throwing)
Wiltse (throwing)
CYoung (glove)

NOTE......These 66 cards are found ONLY with the apple-green colored backs. They were definitely not printed with the darker green backs.


I'm sure that some of you may have questions. Feel free to ask them, if I have not clearly explained this phenomena to you. Or, if you want to know
more details regarding these cards.

Credit goes to Art Martineau & Jim Rivera for first pointing out this color difference to this forum in 2009.
In 2007, I had completed an all-SOVEREIGN set. This enabled me (in 2009) to correlate the cards with the apple-green backs to the 350/460 series
subjects in the T206 set and arrive at this theory.



TED Z

[BleedinBlue]

The note at the bottom clears things up for me.

[fkw]

Great info, thanks for posting Ted

[Vegas-guy]

So is this Kelly the "apple green"? I didn't see it in the list or is it printed with both dark and apple? what one is more "rare" or is there no diff?

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by Vegas-guy

So is this Kelly the "apple green"? I didn't see it in the list or is it printed with both dark and apple? what one is more "rare" or is there no diff?

Your Kelly has a forest green Sovereign 350 back. That is the only Sovereign back that subject was printed with.

Regarding if one back is more "rare" than the other, you will find more forest green Sovereign 350's on the market than apple green. This is due to the total number of subjects printed with one back versus the other. If you're searching for a specific player you may have a different experience.

[Vegas-guy]

Originally Posted by Abravefan11

Your Kelly has a forest green Sovereign 350 back. That is the only Sovereign back that subject was printed with.

How many green's are there? How do you tell the diff? I know the dark, but forest and apple look pretty close?

[Abravefan11]

Once you know which subjects were produced in which print groups then you will have a good understanding of which should be found with which color back. That will eliminate any doubt.

Sovereign are some of the most important subsets for understanding the composition of the set at given times. All Sovereign subsets hold a key of some kind to the T206 set.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Vegas-guy

How many green's are there? How do you tell the diff? I know the dark, but forest and apple look pretty close?

Reg

There are 402 different subjects that comprise a complete Sovereign set. Therefore, there are 336 different subjects [402 - 66 (apple-green subjects)] whose
backs were printed with the darker green color.

My experience in collecting these Sovereign cards is that of these 336, some are a normal green color while others are a deep forest green (see below example):



........../\...........Example.........../\


This variance in the normal green coloring could simply be due to aging of the cards.


TED