T206 Centering Marks? Red on top

[Blitzu]

Hello all, new here but been reading a lot and using the threads on this site for awhile to help me identify various things. I tried searching for this topic but didn't find anything clear on it so sorry if this is a repost or common knowledge.

I've been collecting T206's for a number of years, primarily to put together a complete series of backs.

Anyways, I just recently acquired a very nice raw Piedmont 350, Factory 25 Blackburne. I noticed right away that there were clear marks at the center of the picture box on all four sides. I had never seen these before, or at least stared at any one of my T206's at the front for long enough to notice these. I thought right away there may be an issue with the card. Google searches yielded nothing of help, and I didn't quite know how to phrase the search. These look like centering marks on each side from the printer. The mark on the top is clearly red and the others are grey/black.

I started looking at eBay at other T206's scans of cards with high quality scans/photos and started seeing a trend. Most of the Piedmont 350's have these marks. Some appear to have only one or more marks while others have all four. Some of the top marks appear to be black while others are white. The other consistent factor is the marks appear mostly on the Piedmont 350 factory 25's. Although, I did find these marks on one SC 150 and a Piedmont 150.

Does anyone know anything more about these markings?

I took photos of the card I have and I also made copies of photos taken from eBay of other cards with these marks.

Thanks for the wonderful site.

[atx840]

Welcome to the board and nice card. These are seen frequently and a few ideas have come up on the board, I would think they were used for alignment of the color layers when printing. Someone more familiar like Steve may have a more accurate answer.

[Blitzu]

Originally Posted by atx840

Welcome to the board and nice card. These are seen frequently and a few ideas have come up on the board, I would think they were used for alignment of the color layers when printing. Someone more familiar like Steve may have a more accurate answer.

Thanks, and I didn't think it was too big of a deal but I wasn't sure how to refer to it in terms of a search in order to find out more about them. I'm glad you guys have seen them too before... I was afraid I got scammed at first...

[steve B]

Nope, they're actually pretty common. usually they're small enough they don't stand out, and they aren't there for all colors.

They're registration marks of some sort. Usually today those are put on the sheet margins. It's also possible that they are marks left to help lay out the lithographic stones so the setup is consistent.

I've found a printing museum that's local to me, and I'll be heading up there with a few questions about the process as it was back then. I'm pretty familiar with lithography in general, but the exact specifics of how the work progreesed are only familiar for the era I worked in - late 70's early 80's. 1910 would have varied a bit and things are very different now.

Steve B

[teetwoohsix]

I echo what Chris said-welcome & nice cards !!

I also have noticed this on a lot of my cards- you will see it alot with blue. It is fun to look at with a loupe, and they always seem to be centered perfectly. If this picture works, you can see the line right in the middle at the top. Thanks for posting-

Sincerely, Clayton

[CW]

Some cool examples were posted in these threads...

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...t=printer+mark

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...t=printer+mark

and the last post in that thread has in interesting illustration....

http://www.net54baseball.com/showpos...1&postcount=13

Oh, and welcome to Net54!

[steve B]

How did I miss that last one?

It totally answers one of the questions I'd had about how the work was done.

steve B