Quote:
Originally Posted by cyseymour
Joe,
Any insight into why 1887 was divided into the Short Number set and the Zero set?
Also, do you think that, seeing that "n172" is only supposed to encompass baseball, 1887 OJ's could be broken into a baseball set since there are 575 baseball poses (excluding Willie Hahm) and the Zero set goes to 575? I am detecting some symmetry there...
Thanks
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My response above may have been the result of me over-thinking your question.
If your question is simply why are there different sets from late 1886 & 1887 then the answer is a bit different. It is clear from the player and team combinations found within the 1886-1887 issues that the script cards (Ay examples in particular) pre-date the numbered cards and that the short numbered pre-date the "0" numbered. It is possible that the Baseball card issue was re-scoped several times over late 1886-1887. As more baseball negatives arrived from various studios such as Gray Studio, the card maker/producer had decisions to make. For example, how would the cards be organized and mass produced? It is possible, perhaps likely, that the studio(s) responsible for making the cards for Goodwin and Co. changed during 1887. It may have taken multiple studios to meet the demand for the baseball card inserts. All of these scenarios could help explain the many differences during late 1886-1887. Not only the script vs short number vs "0" number, but Type A vs Type B "0" number, Brooklyn minis and the many other variations (Ay & Ax script cards, missing numbers on cards that should have them, cards with and without copyrights, etc.). In the absence of proof, we can only speculate why the separate issues and the many variations.