There are a few things that complicate all of this.
The plates were only good for so many impressions, and after that were resurfaced and reused for something else.
The images were put on the plate using transfers printed from a master.
There's a lot of evidence of at least some of the masters being reworked at least twice during 150 production, producing cards that can be told apart.
Many of the masters that carried over to the 350 series were also reworked between series. 350's themselves were reworked during the runs. Most of the differences are subtle, some aren't, but don't get much hobby recognition.
Teds timeline of the Doyle variations is pretty close to how I see it, with a couple differences. And it's possible we mean the same thing, but word it differently. I'll paste it in below with my thoughts in red.
(A) American Litho (ALC) initially printed (incorrectly) the front of Joe Doyle N. Y. Nat'L card. Followed by the back with the PIEDMONT 350 advertisement.
ALC usually printed the PIEDMONT backs first and in a much greater amount. PIEDMONT was ATC's "flagship" Tobacco brand.
Pretty much agreed, The only difference is slight, that being that Piedmont production was probably nearly constant. Perhaps split into different specific orders, but Piedmonts were probably always being printed
(B) An astute ALC employee caught this error (Nat'L) and quickly stopped the press. They removed the word "Nat'L" from the plate which prints the captions.
However, in the process the printer left a tiny remnant of the "N" on the caption plate.
Plus most likely the missing period and part of the Y variety, and maybe the NV variety. That last one could be from a faulty transfer on a different second brown/caption plate OR a faulty transfer on the original plate(It's not entirely compatible with the stoning off process, while the missing period and the N remnant is)
(C) ALC then continued to print Joe Doyle N. Y. . cards. And at this point they also started to print the OLD MILL, POLAR BEAR, and SWEET CAPORAL backs.
Here we diverge slightly. But just slightly. I'd describe it as continuing to print those fronts using that original but corrected plate and printing additional backs on those fronts to fulfill orders for those brands. It's maybe just a different way of saying the same thing.
(D) A keen-eyed ALC employee spotted the extraneous printer's mark and stopped the presses. And again the plate which printed the captions was cleared of
this extraneous mark.
Now the messy stuff happens...
Alternately, and more likely they finish production with that plate when it gets worn or the orders that it was for a fulfilled. Then produce a new set of plates for the next orders, or to continue to fulfill the ongoing Piedmont order, using a corrected master.
OR
As Ted says, the fragment of that N is finally noticed, and stoned off. Possibly creating the variety missing the period and part of the Y. (I don't think it's likely, but it's entirely possible. )
(E) ALC then continued printing the correct Joe Doyle cards (with PIEDMONT,
EPDG, OLD MILL, POLAR BEAR, SOVEREIGN, SWEET CAP, and TOLSTOI backs).
This could have been done from the corrected plate, or from a new plate made using a corrected master. It would take lots of study, but should be provable, as the new brown/caption master may have matched reworked masters for the other colors. That also means that cards from the original corrected sheet can possibly be told apart from the new ones.
It's also possible that for some of those brands leftover extra sheets of fronts were used up to complete orders. *
* Typically each stage of production would include extra sheets to allow for a complete order even if some sheets were spoiled. Having a bunch of leftover sheets, maybe even enough to cover an order from a smaller brand like Tolstoi.
What we don't know is exactly how the orders were written. If they just said something like "X number of cards with baseball subjects with Tolstoi advertising" Then leftover sheets being used for at least part of the order is likely.
If it was "X number of cards with baseball subjects, assortment A with Tolstoi advertising" Or specifying particular players, then it's far less likely.
The transition to the 350 backs probably allowed lots of 150 extra sheets to be used up. If the non-elite 11 subjects from the sheets were carried over they may be identifiable from leftover 150's.
Pat- I have pics of what I believe is a P350 with a remnant of a scratch that survived the resurfacing. I keep forgetting to send it to you to see if it matches any of the known ones. It could also be placed differently, making an ID difficult.
And again, this is largely educated guesses with some card evidence that may "prove" the ideas. And more that hasn't been looked into yet. It's mostly a matter of outlook, most people see that set as a sort of complex thing where most cards fit into five nice neat categories. I picture it as much more complex.
I'm finally getting a bit of time to do some of the comparisons I need to do, and have found three good sources of high res scans. So maybe...
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