T206 Young portrait question

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Posted By: Pete Z.

What accounts for the differences in picture quality if not registration? Why don't see this kind of variation with Cobb's green portrait?
Thanks,
Pete

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Posted By: leon

The T206 guys will help out by I am aware that different series of T206's had different print qualities ...Planks are ones that come to mind....

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Posted By: Don

If anything, I guess we know it was double printed.

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Posted By: J Hull

I'd guess that the top example was printed either from worn printing plates or plates that had been poorly etched. "Etching" was/is the process of applying an acid-based solution to the plate in order to fix the image to its smooth surface. It is purely a chemical process; there's no actual scratching or etching on the plate. Mistakes during that process could lead to blurry-looking prints.

The difference between examples two and three is the strength of the light blue ink layer. The green in the background was produced by a yellow layer overlaid with a light blue layer. You can see the light blue sticking out a tiny bit on the left edge of the bottom card. Stronger or darker blue produces a stronger or darker green.

Jamie

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Posted By: Jeff S.

I believe Ted Z. mentioned the earlier printings (150 series) of T206's having stronger clearer images. This seems logical as the lithographic stones were fresh, although I find it hard to believe that they printed hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of one card from the same stone.

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Jeff S you just beat me by seconds as to what I was going to say here. Do you have some sort of ESP ?

Pete Z

It might help us to know what the backs are on these 3 CYoungs.

TED Z

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Posted By: Doug

I've noticed a similar effect on the green Cobb. It seems that the 150 series cards often have darker backgrounds and sharper images than the 350 series cards. I have no idea why, but I've owned about a dozen of them and it seemed to be the case with each one.

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Posted By: Anonymous

top: old mill
middle: piedmont 350
bottom: sweet cap 150