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Posted By: barrysloate

Sean- the earliest baseball CdV we know is the 1861 Brooklyn Atlantics; the earliest trade card pictures Jim Creighton, probably around 1865. Hal's CdV is wonderful and early but my best guess is it is no earlier than 1864, and perhaps even a year or two later. Other than Chadwick none of the players have beards, a good sign that it might even be post civil war. The very earliest players often sported rather long beards. Not scientific, just an observation.