Dating of N184 Kimball Champions

[G1911]

Apologies if I've missed a thread, I was able to locate a number of threads claiming the traditional 1887 date here but nothing where this is questioned.

I've been sorting out all my notebooks and records of boxing N series cards the past few days over the holidays but this one again relates more popularly to baseball than my little niche. The series has long been claimed to be 1887 by most authorities and hobby institutions, significantly pre-dating it's similar releases by A&G and Goodwin.

Series 4 Ancient Coins is typically listed as an 1888 issue, series 6 Fancy Bathers as an 1889 issue. Forbes assigns N184 to the much more likely 1888 date.

The evidence in favor of 1887 seems to be that that was the year all of these 4 players were in the major leagues. The hobby traditionally claims 1) a very short lead time of production between baseball playing dates and card issue dates and 2) focuses only on the cards of baseball subjects to date a series. This is, of course, flawed methodology. A card cannot realistically be released depicting a player with a team he has not yet played on, but that does not mean the players card was released very tight in time to the date he was with that club. Kimball's don't identify the team directly.

The set is less than good when it comes to subjects and its statements in the other sports too, which makes tying it to events to prove it couldn't be released before X date difficult. For just 1 example, Tommy Warren was a featherweight, not a lightweight, so it is difficult to relate its claim of him being the lightweight world champion to any actual historical event.

The evidence against the 1887 date is the coupons for the related album are dated October 1, 1888, July 1, 1889, September 1, 1889 and January 1, 1890. The 1888 coupon is very imprecise with what the date means and if it is a cutoff or start date; the other coupons are precise. The album starting issue years later than the card set makes little to no sense. 1888-1889 seems much, much more likely than the traditional claim with the evidence available. I'd love to see any evidence for any date or an earlier coupon. I would suspect it had a fairly long period of overall issue, with the two types being at a remove from each other but that is just a deduction. I would also expect a 2 sheet production format.