The color on the Lenox is darker than the brown on the Hindu. The brown Old Mills seem easy to explain. The Southern Leaguers were printed with three backs, Old Mill (black), Hindu (brown), and Piedmont (blue). It appears that a printer made an error and used the brown ink on a sheet of Old Mills, but caught the mistake and scrapped the sheet. That is why all Brown Old Mills are hand cut.
The Lenox are printed with a darker Brown. I've always thought that the ink matches the shade of brown used to print the player and team names at the bottom of the cards. It doesn't seem to have been caught by the printers the way the OMs were.
Thanks for the thread Ted.Your Cairo connection makes sense to me,but I'm no expert on that set.
