I was able to pick up one of my 19th Century Type-Card White Whales the other day and wanted to share but figured It would be fun to see who can figure out the puzzle on front.
About the item, Duke & Sons was the largest tobacco manufacturer in the world at the end of the 19th Century and made many card sets, most of which are quite common. That being said, a few of the Duke issues are very rare and hard to find, among the absolute toughest of their card sets was the very strange 1889 N125 "Puzzles" set made with their Honest Long Cut brand. The set consists of 15 large cards (about the size of a 1911 Zeenut card but wider). I have been collecting them for several years and have only a few examples from the set. Each card has a different "theme" such as The Cryptogram Puzzle, The Poet Problem, The Domino Trick Puzzle and so on. The last card in the set is simply titled "Base Ball Puzzle" and has a cryptic design on front that one is supposed to figure out with hints given on the back of the card. I have only seen a few examples of the baseball card in the past 20 years. It is truly one of the toughest 19th Century "Baseball Type-Cards" to find & unknown to many.
Anyways, I thought it would be fun if our board members can decipher the meaning (of all the puzzles in the set it is probably the easiest one as some are way too difficult).
***Please don't go to the Net54 Non-Sports companion site gallery and look up the set for the solution & post it as that will ruin it for everyone***
Here is the front and back of the card, lets see if we can do it...
