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Old 11-27-2013, 09:57 AM
steve B steve B is offline
Steve Birmingham
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: eastern Mass.
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Yes, they can and do appear in nearly all the 80's/90's sets, and can appear in almost any set.

There are two different things shown, with similar results.

The Clemens and Seaver are caused by a poorly made plate for the black color. There should be a bunch of them out there depending on how long the printer used the bad plate.

The Winfield and Smithson are caused by water or solvent dripping on the plate. Too much water in one spot and the plate won't pick up any ink. Solvent will do nearly the same thing. Those are usually truly unique, there may be a card from the next sheet showing a similar but less severe version, but not always.

Both are interesting, showing that Topps printed Blue under the black.
I'm not sure why they would do that, it won't ever show unless the registration is way off, and over millions of cards the cost of extra ink would actually add up. It might have been done as a QC measure so they could see if the ink was printed evenly when it was just the blue layer.

Steve B
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