I have always had questions and theories regarding the 1961 Topps cards that have traditionally been accepted as 'short prints' and labeled as such.
So I located an uncut 132 card 1961 Topps sheet through a Google search that contains each of the well-known nine SP cards (others may list it as 10 or more SP's, but the 9 seem to be universally accepted). It's a low resolution image, but it's pretty easy to see some detail. (The weirdness at the very top is a couple of enlarged cards superimposed over the image of the sheet, so pay them no mind.)
The 'official' SP's are:
371 Bill Skowron
402 Larsen Pitches Perfect Game
408 Mathewson K's 267
417 Juan Marichal
421 Ty Cline
423 Charlie Neal
428 Ray Barker
430 Bill Mazeroski
436 Jim Maloney
But here is said sheet and something curious comes to mind:
Image.jpg
The 22 cards outlined in green appear only once on the sheet and they include the 9 cards listed above. Cards appearing outside of that group are printed twice on the sheet.
So why don't SP lists include all 22 of these single-printed cards? All the cards that are generally agreed to be SP's are right there intermingled with the rest of them, but you never see any of these guys referred to as SP's. And the group includes Hank Aaron and Lou Gehrig!
Here's the full list. Checklists are always a crapshoot, because they sometimes printed them on previous sheets, so it's possible that card isn't an SP. But, of course, I could be wrong.
361 Checklist 5
371 Bill Skowron
372 Bob Hendley
389 Ralph Terry
399 Cliff Cook
400 Vern Law
402 Don Larsen Perfect
405 Lou Gehrig Streak
407 Jack Chesbro Wins 41
408 Christy Mathewson Ks
412 Larry Sherry
413 Eddie Yost
415 Hank Aaron
417 Juan Marichal
421 Ty Cline SP
423 Charlie Neal
463 Milwaukee Braves TC (misnumbered #426)
428 Ray Barker
430 Bill Mazeroski
436 Jim Maloney
441 Dick Bertell
446 Bob Taylor
Are there other sheets that reconfigure the layout of these cards to print more of the cards I'm talking about? If not, and this uncut sheet is the only way they printed that group of cards, then all 22 of them should be recognized as SP's.
And yes, there are obviously other SP's elsewhere in this set (Berra MVP, etc.), but my focus is only on this sheet of cards.
Perhaps someone here has some knowledge in this area that could help shed light on the mystery??