T206 sheets: Huge factory numbers at back bottom

[Runscott]

We've talked about sheet layout based on 'double name' cards. More on possible sheet lay-out definition, based on those partial huge factory numbers we find on the bottoms of some card backs. I read Tim's article today, and based the following on the sheet layout he shows at the bottom of this page: http://www.t206resource.com/Article-...stique-34.html

Assuming that the partial numbers at the bottom of some cards is the factory number, and given that we're finding multiple examples of the players that it shows up for, but relatively few cards show it, a few things to think about:

If we assume these examples were from cards that appear in the exact center of the sheet (with 8 players to either side), which to me makes sense, since all examples appear to be printed directly in the middle of the card,
and we assume that the player card always appeared in that position (as opposed to a different column on the sheet), also realizing that layouts will be different for different print groups (but we can tell this by the ad back),
and that there were always 4 rows per player, then...

You wouldn't expect to see any examples of such players with overly-tall fronts (fronts that don't show part of the name of the card above), since the partial '30' at the back bottom of some examples indicates that these players wouldn't appear in the top four rows. This would only be true within print groups;e.g-I have two SC 350/460 fact 30 Johnson portraits and wouldn't expect to see 'tall boys' for any SC 350/460 cards or any other ad backs printed at the same time.

The odds would be against all examples of a particular card showing partial factory at the bottom, being from the same ad back/factory combination. For instance, using the example above, I would expect to also find Piedmont 350/460 Johnson Portraits with the top of a 25 (or less likely, a 42).

If all of the above is true, then we should be able to get a good idea of how many different sheets were printed, just based on which cards have a partial factory on the bottom of their ad back, using the ad back 'print group' information we already have to determine the number of sheets per print group.

Just brainstorming here, so please add your thoughts.