1911 Obak backs---Is this something new?

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Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Hi all,
Most who collect T212's know about the framed and unframed back border designs on 1909's and the many different back slogans on 1910's. It has been documented that all 1911 backs are the same in design save for the different stats and player bios. I was looking at a group of 7 1911 Obaks that I received in the mail today and noticed something about the backs that I hadn't noticed before. 5 of the 7 have a thick line with a leaf-like design in the middle that is located just above the OBAK name and under the player stats. I checked the other 25 1911's already in my collection and found 2 more. Aside from the 7 with the design, all the others simply have a blank space between the Obak name and the player info. The size of the player bio/stats seems to have no bearing as to whether or not there will be a design. I checked all the Obak articles in VCBC by Jeff Obermeyer and Mark MaCrae and Lipset's encyclopedia and found no mention of the different 1911 back. It would appear that there are in fact 2 different back designs for 1911 Obaks. I can't really say yet whether or not the design back is more scarce then the non-design back. Has anyone one else noticed the different back? Has anyone seen a write-up on the two different backs?