Could I possibly take my obsession with Howe McCormick’s T206s any further?
 

Yes, I could!

Years ago, when I was trying to gather every card that Howe had owned, the first image, that of the Hindu-backed Killian was shared with me by a board member who owned the card. Over the course of time, I somehow convinced myself that I owned the card, while in actuality, it remains with the owner who shared the scan almost 15 years ago.

But last week, Colton shared with me that he had a couple of Howe’s cards he had purchased from Scott and was thinking of letting them go. One was the Becker, with a fingerprint. It reminded me of the Killian with a fingerprint, and a whole new rabbit-hole of collecting began.

The cards from the Goldin auction that Scott won had very few owners, if more than two. The gentleman whose family brought the cards to Goldin said he had purchased them around 1970 during a trip to Florida. Howe’s daughter’s boyfriend last saw Howe’s collection in boxes in 1969, and Howe told him in 1972 that he had sold all but his favorites the year before to a dealer in Miami.

Both cards would be from the 350 series, and even with different brand backs, have the same color of stain on the fingerprint. Just a wild guess, but one night, during the stamping process, Howe had something on his fingers and left behind his fingerprint during the process of stamping them.

Just a wild guess, but a new way to pursue rebuilding the collection. One example of every card he owned, and now, the fingerprint collection. The first collection stands at 408, the second at one.

Every collection starts somewhere...

400! That's quite impressive.

Awesome Ed! I will have to check out my Howe stamped cards tonight to see if I have any with fingerprints for you. I love your pursuit. It has been fun to follow.

I'll kick in a few bucks if the 500 W. Main St. property ever comes up for sale.

The Hindu is from the 150 series. The fingerprints are most likely from N ALC employee.

Thought I'd have a look on google.
looks like Gainesville renamed streets. All I see for main street is N and S,
Unless e and w University ave were once Wand W main.

Fingerprints
 

Ed,
I'll look through all my Howe stamps and see if I have any fingerprints. I don't recall any, but you never know.

I actually live in Gainesville, Fl. I can confirm Main St. runs North-South. University Ave runs East~West.

Could I possibly take my obsession with Howe McCormick’s T206s any further?


Ed, either you, or perhaps even a close relative, could marry into the McCormick family.

My sole T206 Howe McCormick card would be my wedding gift to the newly united families.


Brian (I could even add a fingerprint to its back to make the gift feel a little more personal)

We'll be on the lookout for "fingerprint" Howe's for you....

Not trying to call out anyone in particular, but I have always felt that all of the Howe stamped cards out there really belong in Ed's collection. I feel like the ones in private hands, where the owners of those cards know of Ed's passion and pursuit of putting the collection back together again, then they should make every effort to get the cards to Ed.

Either by selling to him, trading for it, or simply gifting it to him. They just "belong" with the others that Ed has already gathered. I understand that those guys that own these cards are not at all obligated to do this. But I know that if I were to somehow find a Howe card and were lucking enough to pick it up, I would contact him right away and say how can we get this to you?

I don't know, maybe I'm crazy or way off base here. I just wanted to mention this and see how others feel.

Andrew Huntoon




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I felt the same way too, and even notified Ed a couple of times quite a few years ago about some hidden McCormick cards. My stance has since adjusted, once the huge hoard of the stamped cards came up for auction about a year or more ago, because Ed stated that he no longer was pursuing every available McCormick card, but instead was going after as large a T206 set he could, and has posted a wantlist of the cards he still needs.

I picked up the Greminger in a trade after this 1000+ (if I remember correctly) hoard surfaced, and I knew it was not on his wantlist. If someday Ed were to shift collecting gears back to trying to get as many as possible, I would gladly trade him for a comparable Greminger.

Brian

Hey Brian. That makes sense that once Ed switched gears on the collection folks may have seen that as a statement that they could keep a Howe stamp if it wasn't on his current want list. I've never thought of that. But, I still kind of feel that they belong "home" with the others. The only reason (I think) that Ed switched gears was because 1K+ new examples surfaced at the same time. Many of them would've cost too much to buy them and they ended being distributed all over the place, so the mission became quite unrealistic. It wasn't because he actually wanted to make that change in his pursuit of these cards. I don't know, It's just such a great story and quest that I have that feeling deep down that they belong together.

Ed, sorry if I'm speaking for you, I don't mean to do that. So please chime in and correct me if anything I said is inaccurate. Thanks man.

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