At the time they were printed in large sheets, 2 -132 card sheets side by side. 132 card sheets are around for most sets from the late 70's-80's.
Since they made so many, they would have needed more than one plate for each color, plus the gloss. In 81 there's 66 double prints, (11 to a row, one row doubled on each sheet) As plates wore out they would have made new ones, and it's probable that they used more than one press. by the later 80's there were multiple printing plants and things get pretty wild.
It's possible they had different plants print and pack different products, so there would be quite a few plates. Interestingly, I'm only finding one or two varieties for most cards. The batch I have is a dealer inventory I bought in the late 80's, so they shpuld be from a bunch of different sources.
I'll have to compare my list with the list of the missing top line cards. I may have a few new partial top line ones, but I won't know till I compare the lists.
Steve B
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