T205 Patrick Moran "stray line"

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Posted By: Marc

I was very happy to pick up the T205 Patrick Moran with the stray line of type. Definitely a big key towards completing my set. This may already be common knowledge, but the "stray line" is the last line of type from the back of the A.A. Mattern card. I'm assuming this card was adjacent to the Moran on the printing sheet. I also wonder if perhaps there is an undiscovered Mattern card missing this line of type. I am nothing resembling an expert on turn of the century printing techniques so it may not even work that way but given the scarcity of the Moran variation, it doesn't seem unreasonable that an unknown Mattern variation might also exist. Any thoughts from you T205 aficionados?

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Posted By: Turner Engle

Marc,

Although I do not know much about the Mattern, congrats on picking up the Stray line. Definitely not an easy card to get your hands on.

Turner

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Posted By: barrysloate

No example of Mattern with text missing has been identified, but I admit I could never satisfactorily explain how that line ended up in such an obscure place as beneath Moran's statistics.

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Posted By: J Levine

My theory is sort of simple...they probably used moveable type to print the backs first. It was just probably an error in removing the type quickly noticed after a few printings. This would explain some of the other errors like the Wilhelm and Latham...and the different typefaces for Blackburne and Hoblitzells.

No Mattern error missing type exists.

Joshua

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Posted By: barrysloate

That might better explain the Wilhelm error, where the "r" just fell out of place for the bulk of the print run. But on the Moran, two lines of Mattern's text would have had to have fallen off the press, picked up by the operator, and reinserted randomly back on the printing press. Apparently it did happen, but it is a very odd error indeed.