[CobbSpikedMe]

Excellent topic Ryan! I used to avidly collect T206 back stamps. I started with the purple number style that is on the Hindu back in my avatar (and below). Then I picked up any stamp I could find. I admire Ed's pursuit of Howe's cards and am amazed at how many he has found so far. I have only been able to locate around 20 of the purple number stamps over the years. The highest number I've seen is 122 so I assume there were at least that many at some point in time.

I think some of the ideas of why folks stamped the cards are great. Some adults also stamped the cards, not just kids. I have one example from a Saturday Evening Post salesman named John Anderson that appears to have been use like a business card (pictured below). I also believe that many children would stamp the backs of the cards just for fun as a way to use a stamp they had and the things they had to stamp just happened to be tobacco cards. Since they didn't care about condition or resale value, they just used them to stamp.

I created an online project called The Great T206 Back Stamp Project where I documented as many stamps as I could for years. Bryan (Jobu) was a big help with the project and several other board members contributed as well. The link is always in my signature at the bottom of my posts if you ever wanted to visit the project. I'd love feedback from anyone who wants to offer any.

Thanks,

AndyH